The Fight
by 6Poppy
Summary: Sequel to Hakufess, let's get twisted.
1. Near Death

**If you're confused at the opening, just check the last few sentences of the last chapter of The Hakufess Part 1. That will catch you up with just a few words. Check out When We Die by Bowling For Soup, just a nice song haha. I DO NOT OWN Yu Yu Hakusho, or the idea of Confessors, gars, or wizards. I DO OWN Giligan, Lydia, Demetrie and the plot. **

* * *

There was a lot of bustling as everyone was placing their bags on the wrap around porch. Yusuke and Keiko were arguing about how much was too much to bring.

"Guys what's going on? Don't you feel all that evil energy out there?" Boton walked toward the three men jogging carefully but quickly toward her.

The bustling and arguing stopped when Boton screamed, a hand to her mouth.

Kurama and Touya hurriedly carried a limp and viciously bleeding Lydia into the temple.

"You betta stay out hea," Jin's sad low voice advised them. He stepped in front of the door but not before Yukina slipped past him under his arm unnoticed.

Boton sank to her knees in frightened, worried astonishment.

Back in the deteriorated forest, the Golge Demon cried.

A sad moan left his throat, his large, ugly body trempled while he looking lovingly after the small woman he'd nearly murdered.

"Is that all you can do?" the pathetic monster shuddered at the cold, enraged, voice of the vengeful fire demon. He took a blow to the left temple.

"Noooo," the Golge seemed to weep, covering his head.

"Is that it?"

A rushing wind piled from in front of him as he rushed to kill the Golge.

The creature reached out and smacked Hiei away.

"What then?" he challenged the horrid beast.

"She's a defenseless girl!" he barreled into the shameful looking thing.

He punched the oversized, bulging stomach. The monster screamed as his hand went through the skin, up to his elbow in nasty body fluid.

Then the katana swiftly separated the enormous body in half.

The putrid body disintegrated and burned away, giving off steam and ugly baking noises.

Hiei steadily walked back towards the temple.

* * *

"What's happening?" a frantic female voice worried unsurely. "Why isn't she moving?"

Kurama rubbed his temples agitatedly.

"She's so cold," the same young woman mused. She ran her hands over the sick teenager's clammy, pale gray hand.

He groaned. "Her body temperature is usually 94.5… but I am concerned that she hasn't moved."

Hiei's cloak billowed behind him over his shoulder where he jumped in from the window. He perched on the window in a crouched position and watched the red haired demon with his expectant, crimson eyes.

"Did you find anything that can help Lydia?" Kurama looked at him questioningly, tilting his head toward the bedridden girl.

"Nothing useful."

Hiei's uncaring voice answered and he slumped against the wall, sitting on the window sill.

Kurama heaved a sigh of hopelessness. It would prove difficult to travel against the enemy with their Confessor incapacitated and as good as dead.

The blue haired ice maiden, looked up from the unmoving body and met Kurama's sad, emerald eyes. She turned back to warming Lydia's icy hand.

"It's time for another dose," he muttered to himself.

Kurama stood up and walked over to the dresser against the wall opposite to the bed. He poured hot water with no steam into a brown painted ceramic mug that reflected the moon from where it sat enlightened by the open window. He pulled out a plant with thin orange petals and a stem that would have been green with black leaves if you looked at it in the proper lighting. He crumpled the flower and mixed it into the tea with a bit of a secret substance that turned the liquid a cool, navy blue.

Yukina lifted Lydia's head so Kurama could force the concoction down her throat since she obviously wasn't awake to take it on her own. Yukina thought Lydia ought to be screaming, or moaning at least. Her wound was so deep and still wouldn't stop bleeding. The kind friend wrinkled her small nose at the strong smell of toothpaste the fluid put into the air around the two healers, glad that she had at least changed Lydia's bloody garb.

The three watched intently for any sign of vital movements. Kurama glanced over his shoulder.

"You should clean up your arm Hiei."

The subject examined his dripping red arm.

"There's enough blood in here already and it'll be hard to get off when it dries."

The cloak was slung over the end of the bed frame and the bathroom door closed almost angrily.

"Do you think he was angry before?" Yukina's crimson eyes watched the closed door.

"He usually is, Yukina," Kurama answered. He searched her face.

'_She is so kind… and so oblivious' _he chuckled in his head. _'She'll probably never know he's the brother she's been so determined to find' _he shook his red hair and frowned, dabbing Lydia's forehead with a cold, yellow washcloth.

After a moment he pulled the cloth away and leaned in for a better look at her face. His brow wrinkled and the wheels in his head turned though clueless to what he was seeing.

"What is it, Kurama?" Yukina asked sweetly, carefully hiding her worry. _'I'm too much of a baby' _she thought.

He set the cloth down.

"Did you notice she had a bruise on her left temple?" he wondered curiously.

She shook her head and looked over to the spot directed.

"I could have sworn the only visible injury was the tear in her side," she recognized the black bump above Lydia's ear. She put a hand there to caress it, thinking of all that pain and hoping her friend would wake up.

While she was rubbing the goose egg bruise it suddenly lie flat and the color disappeared into the paleness of the rest of the body it lived on.

Yukina gasped. Kurama frowned harder.

"So strange," the mumble wasn't heard.

Kurama caught glimpse of a shadow that moved down Lydia's arm. He thought to look out the window for the source, but then thought better.

Yukina silently got off of the bed and went to inspect what Kurama's first accusation had been. She searching the calm outside world and found absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, Kurama lifted the unconscious person's arm up and found another bruise, flat this time and larger, on the under side of her forearm.

"Yukina," he called, his voice shed an edge of urgency.

"What is that?" she pointed to the dark shadow that moved up and down the limp arm.

"Well, it's not a bruise," her partner reasoned a matter of fact.

Lydia's body lie quite still and disturbingly pale, but something was moving inside it.

"Hiei," Kurama whispered in an impatient tone. He wasn't used to not having a plan, not knowing what to do. He was a fox, a quite, intelligent thinker. His frown stayed firmly in place while he watched the show of unearthly life.

"It's like a shadow stigma," Yukina placed a hand over it in attempts to make it go away.

Blue white light surrounded her hand and the object of interest, but the shadow only streaked away and to the other side of her arm.

She went for it again, it disappeared.

"Try again, Yukina, please," Kurama directed toward the sliver of a shadow hiding on slender Lydia's neck.

The shadow was gone the instant the light shined out.

"It's afraid of the light," he stated, dumbfounded.

"Oh…"

'_What _is _this thing?'_ his mind wondered estranged. _Hiei? _He sent the word out in the string of invisible time that surrounded all things.

_I have no idea what that thing could be or else what it's really doing _the knowing reply was returned almost instantly.

Kurama nodded to nobody and turned toward the window.

"It's a bit chilly, isn't it?" he closed it halfway. The stench of red blood cells was thick and far too much to even consider shutting off the natural fan.

"What is that thing?" Yukina suddenly exclaimed behind him.

He turned quickly, seeing that she was off the bed again. Her body trembled a little and she pointed to Lydia's midsection, a look of horror and fright clearly telling him something was wrong.

He stood stock still, and listened.

His fox ears could just barely pick up a slight popping and slithering noise of a creature much like a snake.

He nervously strode over to Lydia and pulled her shirt up a little ways.

The skin wiggled and rose and fell. It was unnatural, awfully loathsome. The black shadow mingled with these atrocities.

Crackles and pops where heard more audibly here beside her.

"It's breaking her!" he studied the movements, mind running wildly.

The shadow squirmed and jumped, like a prisoner trying to open a trap door to escape or else bust his way out.

Kurama feared Yukina had gone catatonic; she stood so unresponsive over his shoulder, her face frozen in that expression of horror.

Kurama's face smoothed, and just stared blankly, giving up for the time being until she would awaken.

"She could be pregnant," he thought with a shrug, "but that's highly doubtful," he waved a hand dismissing the supernatural occurring in the room.

There was silence, except for the popping and crawling under Lydia's skin in her stomach. No one moved. No one knew the pain that almost happened if Yukina had not suddenly snapped.

"Get away!" she screamed and blasted blue white healing energy in the face of the thing.

From what they could see, it didn't reappear.

From what Kurama could hear, there was a soft animal cry of hurt.

* * *

**What do you think will happen next?**


	2. Awakened, But Not The Same

**I'd like to know how I could make this story better and more enjoyable to the viewers, what do you think?**

* * *

Lydia's eyes opened. She felt warm, and very, very tired.

She quickly sat up and grabbed at the pain in her left side that tore her apart. Several tears fell down her face and her eyes adjusted.

She was upstairs in a guest room. It was pretty bare, a soft lavender colored vase reflected soft white light, in it lived a bunch of white orchids and a couple of red roses in their midst. Giligan had paid his respects. Through the window moonlight shone, silently crying in dark sorrow.

She looked down, her dark, straight hair piling in front of her. She was wearing her shorts and the baby blue tank top that looked ghostly in the current atmosphere was only a half shirt. Bandages covered her body enough, like a complete strapless shirt. She pulled the sheets up to her chest.

Yukina slept soundly in a chair, her head in her arms atop the side of the bed. Kurama was curled up in a chair across from the bed. The bathroom light was on and steam escaped under the closed door. There was an eerie wail outside.

She carefully stepped out of bed. He legs crumbled and she fell on the floor. A hand came down on her shoulder and another on her mouth.

She gasped and looked up to Kurama. He put a finger to his lips and carefully pulled her up. He placed a black shawl over her shoulders and drew her to the window where her attention had already been averted.

She watched the night life quietly, sighing when something appeared to please her. Her haunting pale green eyes, now ice like, drifted over to the destruction.

"Oh!" she began to cry lightly. Kurama hugged her, half hiding the embrace as being support for her weak body. She hugged herself around the waist too, ashamed of what she'd done, how easily it had been done.

'_It was good that you did, your powers saved you.' _

'_Yes, but that life was not mine,' _she sobbed to Hiei's voice in her head, _'I should have been able to control it.'_ She then stiffened and froze.

Her right hand felt warm and sticky and… wet. She lifted her hand and stared at the ruby blood. This brought her attention to her bandages. She saw that they blood was badly bleeding through on the entire left side. She suddenly felt faint and realized again how tired and in pain she really was.

She stumbled out of the fox demon's arms and pulled back the sheets, gently to not wake Yukina. Blood was thickly coated onto the sheets.

"You were bleeding so horribly," he whispered, the stench of red blood cells abruptly hovered in the air by her disgusted nose.

She realized, _'Yukina must've spent the night healing me and exhausted herself.'_

She turned back to Kurama. He looked extremely drawn and somnolent.

'_Him too,' _a flash of light caught her attention. She stared at the beautiful guitar leaning against Kurama's chair. Her smile faltered, something just didn't feel right. She'd felt something wrong had been happening before she was attacked.

"He's dead," he confirmed. Kurama expected to see her eyes widen and her to cry. He would explain why Demetrie had passed on and what they were to do with the other Confessors Hiei had informed him of. _'Which reminds me' _he thought to speak with Giligan of their affairs.

The guitar's intricately divine designs turned malignant and ugly towards Lydia. The sad disappointed girl just sighed heavily and rubbed her left shoulder, biting her lip.

She walked over and plucked off the pin at the top of Kurama's lime green kimono. She smiled gravely, fastening the pin to hold together the ends of the shawl. He watched her manage a brighter grin. She sweetly touched his cheek.

Lydia jerkily made her way to the bathroom and opened the door. She went to the side with the bottles of cleaning supplies, hair products, medicine, and other medical care. She grasped a large white bottle as tight as she could muster; it almost slipped through her hands, and tossed it at Hiei who one handedly of course, caught it.

"You're covered up to your elbow," she explained, lifelessly.

He pulled the cap of with his teeth and dumped the course white powder over his arm, his hand turned the faucet left and the water let off hot steam.

Lydia calmly set to washing her own blood stained hand with soap and warm water in the other sink. When the water no longer turned pink and her hands were no longer stained, she reached over Hiei's head to get the hand towel over the toilet.

"Watch your right shoulder," he told her. She looked at him with a confused expression.

A hiss escaped her thin set lips. Pain shocked through her nervous system as her finger tips grazed the soft white hand towel. She clutched her shoulder and almost knocked herself over. Hiei's clean arm broke her fall and pushed her up against the counter.

She took in deep breaths, waiting for the pain to subside some while he continued to cleanse his red skin as if nothing happened. She pushed back the shawl.

"Aw!" she said, disgusted.

A very large and black bruise covered the right edge of her collar bone and up over her shoulder.

"How did I not break my neck?" she asked allowed to the girl in the mirror.

"You're very lucky."

She moved back into the dim bedroom with the quiet voice.

"Where is he?" she wondered.

"Dead," came the equally dry reply. She turned her head to glance over her shoulder. Hiei was transfixed in her gaze.

"How… h-how do you do that?" he complained, stumbling uncharacteristically over his words. He referred to the sudden conflict in movement whenever their eyes held the same stare.

"It's part of the gift, I'm not proud of it," she turned back to the tall, red haired fox demon. Behind her, Hiei rubbed his eyes like he had a headache. "And I wasn't asking about _him_."

"Giligan is downstairs sleeping off the exhaustion put onto him when we brought you to this temple nearly drained of life."

"Okay," she breathed out the unnecessary reply.

Every time her power was released, every one would see black, depthless tar cover her eyes momentarily. What they saw was a girl possessed by a dark, merciless, matter.

She saw every act committed by her power and every sin in the opposition's life. A wave of dread, depression, and fury consumed her spirit. It always took a while just to shake the images from her mind.

Lydia's eyes teared up and she pressed a couple of cold fingers against her mouth. _'Try to forget'_ she told herself, her anger rising. _'No one should have to do this job. At least the bastards in the real world get to choose if they want to be vampirous assholes to every delinquent that waltzes into the iron enclosed office. On top of that, I'm the only 'crime fighter' that seems to bring every single friend down with her!' _

This time, both men felt the change.

"Lydia-"

"You look tired Kurama," she cut off.

"And so do you, but-"

"Oh, don't worry about me!" she told him. The sarcasm raised her voice an octave. "I'm dandy. Swell. Been better of course, mind you, but there's nothing wrong here," her false pleasantness disturbed something deep in his soul.

"If that's so, then you can come train with me and my plants right now," his emerald eyes flashed foreboding golden amber.

She was about to retort coyly when she felt a movement foreign to her person. Her hand fluttered to her abdomen.

"Hmm," she murmured, looking down.

"What _is_ going on with her," Hiei asked in his usual demeanor.

Kurama looked down at her, expecting her to answer for herself. When she didn't, he nodded briefly.

"Is there a chance?"

"Pardon?"

"You may be pregnant."

"What?!" she scoffed, her face heated and her anger aroused excitedly through her body.

"Giligan told me you've been playing it off. You were taken by Shigure as a young child, yes, but it wasn't more than three months ago that you escaped."

Lydia blanched. She ran over her untold facts. She reminisced as much as she could of those long, horrifying six years. She didn't bother to tell them any more than the basics because it got too confusing and complicated for her to even explain. Not to mention she liked her personal life to be kept rather quiet in case of something such as the situation she so _graciously _found her self in occurred and called her back into the abyss.

She walked shakily over to the dresser where a single brown handled knife lay beside a few opened shells from the seeds Kurama used to create his potions. She picked it up, the light reflected off it bounced across the room once. With a quick glance not even Hiei noticed, she plunged the knife into her stomach.

Kurama wrapped her in a tight hold in a flash. The knife clattered metallically onto the floor. Lydia struggled to breathe because his hand was over her mouth and she pushed defeated against his arm that was squishing her middle. He glared at the short, red eyed fire demon in front of him. The said demon picked up the knife and tossed it around his right hand in an obvious fashion.

"Now why would you do a thing like that," Hiei spoke for Kurama flatly.

It took a moment, for Kurama had to cool down a little, before he agreed to remove his hand. He placed it on her forehead as a reminder while she answered hopelessly.

"I can't have a child, not like this. It would be an abomination of unspeakable power so much greater than mine. Yeah, raise your eyebrows at me, he will be the greatest enemy of anything and everything that has ever been, is, and ever will be."

Her words echoed without rebounding sound in the stale air between the three in trial. The one sleeping stirred slightly and sighed lightly.

They stared at each other.

"Then pray that they won't," his voice had a new edge to it, answering his friend with the swordsman skill.

Lydia closed her eyes. She didn't even care if they didn't share their conversations with her.

After several minutes, "You should get some rest."

Lydia grasped the bed frame, gingerly leaning against it. The boy in question sighed heavily and went back to the chair. She actually smiled.

"That can't be comfortable," she suggested. He glanced at the bed with gross disposition. She slowly moved over and pulled off the top comforter and sheet. Hiei took the pillow possessively. Lydia lightly tugged at the corners of the sheet.

Yukina stirred.

"Lydia…" she mumbled, "your wounds…"

Lydia's heart received a cold flame that warmed her emotions. The shock left her bewildered. Her smile was, for once in many years, genuine. _'To think… I've gone this long without totally being cared for. I'm missed so much…'_ she watched Hiei slowly move toward the sleeping beauty.

"Here," Hiei whispered to himself, he picked Yukina up into his arms and disappeared into the hall.

The bloody soiled sheets were piled into another room. Hiei came back with new linens and the three friends dressed the bed. Kurama argued affectless with Lydia over who needed the bed and sleep. She'd won, threatening to confess him if she didn't for once get to do something kind for another.

"You need to replace those bandages and reapply the ointment fast," he yawned and drifted away in record time.

She looked around the room. Hiei was no where. She mumbled a 'thank you' to the salty, foul air.

Once again she walked into the bathroom and searched the shelf for medical supplies. Several long white bandages, rubbing alcohol, salt, and ointment were placed onto the brown, black, neon green granite counter.

She slowly unwrapped the bandages. She cried for fifteen minutes when she'd gotten to the gaping hole left in the side of her whole empire and natural waist and blood gushed about the bandages and fingers, and then pooling on the floor.

She soon stuffed one of the five snow white rags to use for cleaning up excess blood into her mouth. Muscles tearing, skin breaking, eyes blinded my tears, muffled cries, and gagged she continued to clean and dress the fatal casualty.

When all that was considered done, because she had not properly tied the bandages because of her nimble fingers and trembling limbs, the floor was scrubbed clean with bleach and a pile of reeking soaked with blood rags lay haphazardly wherever they had fallen from her vigorously working hands.

She removed her slobber gag and vomited endlessly into the porcelain bowl. She wiped the salt crusted face that was streaked with tears and blood from her sick spell. She did her best to sweep the wet hair out of her face and her pale green eyes had rendered reddish tints. She disposed of the filthy rags where the sheets had also been discarded.

She glanced at a sleeping Yukina in Genkai's room and returned to be sure Kurama was still heeding his rest.


	3. A Plan

Lydia examined her shawl and shorts. Her skin was white and pretty cold.

Her feet padded inaudibly down the stairs and into her room. The blue light from the moon lit everything a serene mystery. The dark drapes billowed about the open window, the chilly wind brushing through her hair and hugging her.

She opened the closet door and picked out a long dark mass of cloth and her traveling black looking brown under corset. Tossing the wooden hangers over her arm, a white something was caught in the door when she tried to shut it.

She stared at the long, white dress that intimidated her people back home.

'_Home' _she thought, catching her breath and glancing away. She extra quietly and slowly shut the door, staring through its white wood.

"Hmmm," she traced the bandages over her collar bone. Corset on, but not laced, and the long, forest green cloak hiding her, and a bulk putting a hump in her back, she left the sleeping temple.

None of the birds sang, not even the crickets played or owls hooted in the woods. A hooded figure walked deep into nature's midst. Black clouds hide part of the moon and a lightening disco danced in the bleak sky.

Lydia calmly removed her hood. Her eyes shined, glinted dangerously up at the coming storm. She reached in her cloak and with her good arm produced the guitar that had rested lightly against her back. The draw strings on the cloak loosened and revealed her snug corset, smooth doll white skin, long black pants, and flat black jazz shoes that were untied.

She lethargically paced aimlessly while gently plucking the tuned strings of her musical instrument. The sad acoustic sound was interesting and alluring. She hummed eerily, eyes scanning the trees deep in reverie. After a time, the young woman wept. Her crystalline tears splashed atop her guitar, decorating it with countless diamonds.

"You take the breath right out of me. You left a hole where my heart should be," the whisper was broken and heartbreaking.

She let herself sink to the wet ground against one of the trees. A loud rustle in the trees above startled her. She sang, trying to bring down her racing heart beat.

"You light me up and then I'll fall for you… stumbling on reasons that are far and few," without meaning to she skipped parts of the lyric.

"Have a little patience," cold arms pulled her back away from the tree.

"I'll be alright and I'll sleep sound, as long as you keep coming round," she told Touya, burying her face in his chest.

He held her tight, minding her casualty but not the skin.

"So, you're not afraid of me now," her voice flat and void of any emotion.

"You need a _real_ friend, Lydia. None of this special treatment has done you any good."

She sighed, thinking of the kindness shown by the spirit detective and his friends. Touya told her she'd be accepted, she hadn't believed him. Every where she went she was shunned and resented. How was it they, _'of all people' _she smirked, were different?

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing to say at all."

"I'll say," Hiei appeared in front of the wide eyed couple in the moonlit darkness.

"Jesus, Hiei! Watch the ninja moves," Lydia carelessly tried to hit him.

"We don't have a healer anymore," he stated bitterly, the moon shadowed most of his face.

"What?" the latter exclaimed.

"Yukina's far too weak to continue. They'll arrive before she can recover."

Lydia shook her head. "We need Giligan. He may be able to assist," she offered.

"Don't look at me Hiei," Touya raised his hands, "all I can do is freeze the blood. If we're better off dead, I can help."

"Kurama's potions aren't enough."

"Have I missed something?"

"Don't you have any healing abilities?"

"The Jagan Eye provides me some of that skill but I've never used them."

"What are we going to do?" the exasperated ice apparition's cool collect had left him.

"Well, you know you need me," she stated.

"Of course Yusuke and that idiot wouldn't let him."

"Just because of the yo-yo incident- we _have_ to use our options!"

"I know that, Touya," Hiei retorted harshly, his red eyes took on a new light in the blue black night.

"Now we're talking about a kid? Will you guys listen to me?" Lydia was trying.

"Genkai should be fighting, not playing nurse."

"Then you need to try, Hiei."

"That is hardly in my area of-"

"Did either of two just see a purple cow dance in a Ramen shop to stripper music last week?"

"What?" the men finally responding.

"THANK YOU!" she huffed and clasped her hands together. "Giligan can probably help us."

"Lydia-"

"That pathetic-" apparently Hiei shared the dead wizard's view of the young man in question.

She covered their mouths with her dainty, cold hands.

"He _is_ a wizard… right?"

* * *

"Thank you very much, I know magic!" a flustered Giligan defended himself against the two opposing.

"You look like you could beat the crap out of a fly and still not kill the buzzing bastard," Yusuke teased with complaint.

"I am a first class wizard of the Third order," the defendant pleaded.

"So you can assist us?" Kurama questioned.

"Please!" Hiei scoffed in his evenly smirking tone, "I don't sense any energy in him."

"Our energy is different, Hiei," Lydia kindly reminded him, raising her eyes at the large bellied statue sitting beside her.

"You and you're fire demon attitude are being so mean!"

"Be glad I'm not talking to you."

"Shut up, shrimp!" Kuwabara argued on Giligan's behalf.

"You're an alright guy, Mr. Giligan Wizard Sir," he complimented seriously.

"Losers unite," the mumbled received a death glare.

"Thank you, but… I can't use magic."

"Then how are you to help us?"

"I can relay information, be a messenger if you like."

"You can't use magic?" Lydia spoke disbelieving.

"No. The Third rule wizards read books and learn all there is to know so we can teach classes of young wizards in magical usage and history. Though, the real teaching is up to the First rule wizard in charge of the supernatural education."

"I told you."

Gilgian frowned at Hiei.

"You will tell us of any new information involving Thrynes and the enemies?" Genkai more than demanded.

"Yes ma'am."

The old woman nodded at Lydia. The two spoke silently.

"Yes, and you will be a traveling messenger," she grimly repeated the words.

"I pledge my life to you, Mother Confessor," he kneeled for a brief moment.

She obliged.

"Boton, what's wrong?" Every one turned their attention to Keiko and the catatonic ferry girl.

"I didn't sense them… I couldn't feel their energy… and now…" her words deadpanned and just barely coming out. She never blinked.

Genkai subtly began placing a shield around the house.

"Hey! What's going on?" Yusuke shouted in worry. The others took in fighting stances.

"Can't ye feel tha?" Jin studied the wall intently like it was a deadly creature waking up to find intruders and crush their bones into millions of fragments.

"Holy shit," the spirit detective muttered profoundly.

"They're coming," Shizuru (recently filled in on the bad news, which surprised Lydia) raised her voice.

"I have a plan," Lydia said aloud.

"Explain quickly?"

"We need to send Keiko and Shizuru back home first .Then Yusuke and Kuwabara need to fight the lower spirit levels while Genkai and Hiei set up a perimeter. Yukina and Kurama, you two come with me."

"Hey, now we fought in the Dark Tournament, we'll take out all of them!" the two humans ran off.

"Boton, you need to make a portal for us to get to the Confessors."

"You knew?" Giligan asked, bewildered. A great breeze turned the room into a tornado while Hiei and Genkai disappeared to do their job while Jin and Touya took it upon themselves to help with whatever came available.

"Yes," Lydia pushed Boton into the corner to make the portal.

"Yes, Lydia?" Kurama's alert eyes stared directly into hers.

"Tell Hiei that he and Genkai have three portals to their use to get them all out of there and to a house in the middle of no where. I have more instructions, but there isn't time and they are to stay at that house until a message is sent," she pointed to Giligan. "The word is '_Nurta_', one word, and all three will open. No more questions."

A bright glow grew as the sound of trees falling, screams, and shots reached their ears.

"Hiei's concerned that you haven't thought this through," Kurama informed her.

"Ha," she said, pushing Giligan into the portal after Boton, "Of course not, I just made it up but it's better than nothing. We have to move, Kurama."

"He's says, 'Do you expect us to-'" Lydia caught Kurama's chin. In his surprise, she searched for Hiei in Kurama's eyes.

"I expect you, to trust me."

* * *

**I did use a few songs in here I do not own.**

**Said It All- Take That**

**Patience- Take That**

**Pretty Baby- Vanessa Carlton**

**Breath- Breaking Benjamin**


	4. A Land Once Home

**So the first time I completely forgot to relay what had happened with Kurama not going with Lydia and forgot to even put Yukina in! *FACE PALM* Sorry about that, I fixed it :D**

**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Legend of the Seeker as much as both kick butt and would be awesome to have come up with. I do not own Shota or the creature who Hiei kills in the end whose name is Samuel, by the way. I , of course, own Lydia, Glandur, Giligan Prowd, the dead Demetrie, and Danika Falls. A few other OCs are coming up shortly. **

* * *

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke shouted over the roar of demons.

"EEEEEEEEEK!" the other boy swung his spirit sword madly. "I got this!" _'I'm so lying!'_

Jin rose powerfully into the sky.

"Woo weeeeee!" he dove down and barreled in the form of a tornado through the riot. A few demons took off running form the disastrous wind and slipped on cold ice. They slid up to a cross armed Touya.

"Hmm," he smiled, delighted.

"Ahh!" the lesser demons exclaimed.

"Flower petals?" a blue demon cocked his head in confusion. "Pretty…"

Kurama's green eyes snapped open. He thrust out his arms and like sharp razors the rose petals flashed through the air and demons.

"Now's not the time to play, Kurama."

"Oh? And just what would you call your doing?"

The fire demon, Hiei, jumped through the air. Yusuke saw him and paused.

"T minus five…"

Hiei's katana cut through three B class demons 23 times each.

"Three…"

He landed and spun around wickedly fast.

"Two," Yusuke punched a golge demon back into a tree. Hiei thrust his sword six inches from the latter boy's face. Yusuke looked surprised over to the now dead plant demon.

"One," Hiei looked up at him with a small smile.

The two got back to back and meleed a group of aggressive opponents in a violent free for all.

"Call the portals!" Genkai commanded gruffly. She jumped off the back of a stilled golge demon.

"What?" the boys turned. Uproar filled the air. The wind howled.

"Shit!" Yusuke muttered angrily.

Demons began pouring out of the woods. Hiei's eyes darted around them.

"Hn. There are just too many."

"Yes, winning these over would take some time," Kurama turned.

"_Nurta!_"

Three portals appeared above the mass of unknowing blood craving monsters.

"Great."

"Duck!" Giligan screamed and threw them all onto the ground. A bombshell hit the ground a short distance from them.

The light blue sky churned with confused clouds and lightening storms. The wind whipped around every bend in every direction. Giligan's short hair stood straight up, Boton was afraid hers was going to be ripped out.

"You must stop this!" Giligan cried hopefully, peering over the large rock they hid behind to the luscious bending forest. His eyes grew wide and he ducked in time for the debris from the new blast to miss him.

"This isn't right!" he complained like a baby, his voice muffled.

Lydia stood tall and walked out into the open daisy field. She raised her arms, palms up and spoke a few calm words.

"_Ya línna ambanna tulinuva nan,_" she smirked, "What goes up, must come down."

When she dropped her hands there were a few cries of pain.

She walked over to the fallen figure. She turned him over.

"_Man eneth lín?_" she asked the poor wood elf sweetly.

"Glandur," like true wizards, elves only had first names.

"Who is your keeper?" Giligan appeared by Lydia's right side, Yukina hiding behind him. The young boy looked confused at the words. Lydia found the triangular burn branded into his left fore writ. She raised her eyebrow. He finally nodded in understanding.

"Danika Falls."

Glandur fidgeted under Lydia's fervent stare. Then she smiled.

"You know her?" Boton inquired, wringing her pink kimono in her hands.

"_O man dôr túliel le?_"

The three foot elf trotted to the edge of the forest, pointing into the enclosure.

"Gilgian, do give leave a while. Wait for the others by Agaden Reach."

"You sent them there?!" he was angry.

"No… she did."

"Hey!" Boton denied defensively.

"Wait, wasn't Kurama supposed to be with us?" Yukina asked.

"I decided last minute to keep him with the others, they need a brain. Go, Demetrie!" Lydia demanded.

"Into the region of absolute!" he mumbled very ungratefully.

"Come on," Lydia and Boton grabbed Yukina and ran to catch up with the little guy.

* * *

Danika's silvery laugh filled the room.

"Oh, it's been so long," she mused, smoothing Lydia's dark hair.

Boton's eyes swiveled from girl to girl. They looked so much alike. The only difference was in the eyes and height. Lydia's green eyes were so pale, and Danika's were so dark, well fed, and full of life. She was also a few inches taller than her long lost friend. Yukina kicked her feet out, bored and a little uncomfortable in the presence of a stranger in a completely strange world.

"Where did you get the white dress?" Boton looked at Lydia with a little bit of jealousy.

"I _confess_," she teased, "I put it on before we left the temple. I've had it all along."

"Ah, yes, your latest news," Danika sat down I an old faded chair.

"We need your help."

Danika raised her eyebrows.

"Well I don't know what she was talking about. This doesn't look anything like what she said," Touya denied.

"Hn," Hiei was getting impatient.

"A lot of dead trees out ere," Jin jumped to the ground. " 'Ah don like tha look of et," he wrinkled his nose.

_Crack! _

"Where'd that come from?" Touya wondered aloud.

"Ahhh!" Whew, hey you guys!" Kuwabara looked up from the dirt ground where he fell.

"Hey, I was beginning to wonder where you went," Yusuke threatened.

"Oh! Um, when we fell through that portal thingy, something grabbed me! It was weird…" he stared off. Hiei turned to glance behind himself, looking at the boy uncertainly. "Anyway, can you get this guy off my back? He's kinda creeping me out!"

The boys stared at the lumpy creature that had latched onto Kuwabara's shoulders.

"_Mine!_" the creature hissed. His yellow eyes burned and his claws clutched the blue blazer Kuwabara wore.

"Yuck. It's an ugly, naked, goblin thing," Yusuke grimaced in disgust.

"He's wearing a ling cloth Yusuke, and I don't believe goblins are that tall," Kurama took a step back.

The others backed away as well. Meanwhile, the spitting image of Gollum threw Kuwabara into the bushes and stretched tall in front of them. A snarl came from his crooked, uneven lips and horrid yellow teeth.

"Or nasty long arms covered in green boils," Touya uttered.

A portal opened up 30 feet away from the coming fight. Giligan fell into a nearby tree. He looked around for a means down, and was distracted by the scene below him. He saw the creature advance toward the boys. Giligan whined and covered his face. _'Why? Why the great timing? Every time this happens to me!' _He kicked his legs out where he was positioned in poor defense and intense fright.

"Hn. So gullible," Hiei scoffed. In the blink of an eye, Hiei was twirling his katana with his left hand and the Gollum poser fell apart in a bloody heap.

Gilgian blinked in surprise. His brows furrowed and he bubbled with anger. He would make sure he got knocked out of the tree to attempt to throttle that boy.

"Far too easy," the fire demon slid his katana back into its scabbard, glancing back at the hideous mess.

"Don't put your sword away, Hiei," Kurama warned, urged, alert and looking around nervously.

"What the…" Yusuke began. He felt a powerful energy and if Kurama was ill at ease, they were in trouble. Yusuke slid into a stance. Kuwabara silently picked himself off the ground. The wind stirred in turbulence. Jin shrugged his shoulders at the expectant looks his team mates shot him.

"You non-thinking morons!" Gilgian yelled from in a tree.

Jin pointed to the once again, dangling wizard. From all around, crickets, buzzards, snakes, and other unseen creatures started chattering wildly.

"YOU MADE A MISTAKE! WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO MAKE MISTAKES ON BORROWED TIME!" his voice thundered around the forest and his eyes sparkled with tears.

No one stopped to ponder what he meant by "borrowed time" or completely noticed how his voice had taken over all sounds. Their eyes were focused on the hundreds of things that seemed to be moving in the forest.

"You ignorant-"

Nature's cries had gotten much louder. Hiei stabbed something he didn't recognize, just in case.

"…arrogant, teenage hormonal- BOYS!" Giligan screamed down to the six boys and one old female who glanced back up at him.

"Thanks," Genkai tossed to no one.

Gilgian furiously shook himself off the tree limb, using the wind as his aid and bracing himself for the coming ground. He emerged from the brush were he fell, scratched, glasses disarrayed, and not bothering to straighten his robes.

"What's going on?" Kuwabara asked loudly.

Suddenly all the chaos stopped. A figure emerged from the shadows. Giglian's eyes widened.

"_Shota!_"

* * *

**I used a few Elven phrases on here from Lord of the Rings that I do not own. To clear things up:**

**"Ya linna ambanna tulinuva nan." = "What goes up, must come down."**

**"Man eneth lin?" = "What is your name?"**

**"O man dor tuliel le?" = "What land are you from?"**

**This format stuff doesn't allow me to do the accent marks or that hat thing over the "o" in "dor" like on music sheets if your in a band/music class/band is better :P. **

**Review kiddies :)**


	5. Enter The Game

**This fanfiction is almost done- there are about maybe five more chapters I had in mind- if you think I've forgotten something or want to add anything, here's your chance! haha, enjoy as you see fit!**

* * *

Gilgian backed up several feet, face frozen in fear. Genkai motioned for the boys to be careful. Jin looked doubtfully at his ice friend, the ice friend likewise. They exchanged a glance of worry for what was to come.

Yusuke and Kuwabara stood alert, Hiei much the same with the katana loose and itching to swing. Kurama's hand moved slowly behind his head, searching for the rose to which he would manipulate into his great weapon. A large spider, the size of a common household cat, black, with a bright red hourglass painted onto its back, a fearsome black widow, scurried over to Yusuke's leg.

"Gah!" he screamed and kicked it into the depths of the wood. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kurama's rose whip lash out and constricted a suspicious looking hawk with shining yellow eyes.

"Stop it, kids!" Kurama glanced at the old woman, "something feels off…" her voice rasped, her eyes swiveling madly, searching every organism for a sign.

"Hn."

"No, you feel it too, Hiei…" Kurama told his old friend. They watched around, waiting for movement unlike the two human based boys.

"DIE YOU BASTARD!" Yusuke was screaming again at the spider. Two more came and he was dancing around them.

"Don't move Kuwabara!" Kurama shouted urgently. Kuwabara was spinning in circles with a horrified look. Snakes were gathering down at his feet. They'd appeared from everywhere and no where. The ground slithered and wiggled with them, but only near Kuwabara.

Genkai shot energy at the snakes. They continued as if nothing hit them, one even turned around to hiss furiously at her, unharmed.

"Don't waste energy, it'll do us no good to use it," she informed them, backing up against the others.

"Gah! I don't care! SPIRIT GUN!" a large blue blast hurled through the woods. A total path of destruction lay before them.

"Jeez, Yusuke! Wotch tha naturals eh?"

"Well, sooorry," he commented to the wind master.

"Yusuke, that was very stupid," Genkai moved in front of them all, her voice detached. She had her back turned to them, but her muscles were tense and she stood rigged.

"Oh, great, now what?" Kuwabara asked.

"Relax, we're gonna find out soon," Yusuke's sarcasm laced his calm bluff. He stood to the right of his master and focused on what was ahead of them.

The wind rustled the scrawny limbs of the _trees_. That was the only sound.

Not a twig snapped, not a breath heard, not an animal seen, not a thing else moved.

"What are we supposed to be looking at?" Hiei wondered impatiently.

"There appears to be nothing there," Kurama acknowledged, looking ahead. He turned his head to watch behind them, a frustrated sigh escaped his frustrated expression's mouth. "But there is something… it's watching us, undetected."

Muscles tense, minds rolling, eyes searching, violence restrained… they waited. The ground quaked all of a sudden.

"There it is!" Genkai shouted.

"THERE WHAT IS? I DON'T SEE A DAMN THING!" Yusuke had had enough surprises and invisible attackers. He'd already had enough of this new planet or whatever he was on.

"You guys do know it's underground, don't you?"

"WHAT?!" they all yelled at Kuwabara.

Twenty feet away, a great whole opened up and a long, giant monster snaked out of it, hissing and blood thirsty. The gang stared up at it. Jin took to the air to study it. Touya looked for the feet that never came.

"You should have told us a huge ass snake was traveling under our feet to eat us up! We don't have the same Spirit Awareness! Remember? Remember Kuwabara!" Yusuke kept smacking the other teenager around.

"SHUT IT, YUSUKE!" Genkai bellowed before being forced to jump out of the way of the giant, slimy, scaly tale that swung at her.

"SPIRIT-"

"No, Yusuke!"

"How can you be calm like this? I know you're Kurama, but still!"

"Yusuke, please listen!" Yusuke never tore his eyes from the beast. Hiei's weapon barely left a scratch, the skin was too thick. Jin couldn't sway it with the wind, it stayed firmly on the wet ground. Every time Touya went to freeze anything it caught him in its mouth or whipped him with its tail. Either way, Genkai always ended up catching him before he fell hard and shouting back at Kuwabara to conjure his dimension sword.

A spirit wave issued from Genkai's outstretched hands. A loud cry erupted behind the blast to ease the pain of power loss with a shout. The monstrous snake flew back and was severely damaged… or so they thought.

"There's no stopping that thing," Touya confirmed, coolly. The beast turned to look at them.

"HEY! YOU GUYS! DON'T LOOK IN HIS EYES! IF YOU HAVE ALREADY… WELL I DON'T KNOW! BUT DON'T LOOK-" the beast cut Kuwabara off sharply and shortly. It picked him up with its enormous, venom filled tooth by the shirt, strangling him in mid air while slithered fast toward its enemies. It flicked its head and sent Kuwabara flying over the peoples' heads. There was a horrible thud behind them.

The beast roared in their faces and went to dive in for the immediate, inevitable kill.

"Now, now, boys, play nicely," the beast suddenly stopped and snapped its head over to the owner. The figure that had been lying in the shadows finally stepped out.

Giligan peeked out from under Kuwabara's body.

"Ugh! Get off you large brute!" he heaved and threw the unconscious body off of him.

"Giligan," the entrancing woman's voice soothed, "You should have stayed hidden," she chastised him in an even voice.

His eyes widened, he turned to the group and opened his mouth to say something. The beautiful woman snapped her fingers and Gilgian disappeared.

"Woah! What did you do with Giligan?" Yusuke demanded, Spirit Detective side kicking in.

'_Yusuke' _Genkai thought, _'now isn't the time for your heroics. You have no idea what that thing was or who this is- play it smart, you dimwit.'_

"I am impressed," she folded her slender arms, "I saw you look into the basilisk's eye, how are you still alive?"

"We should be dead?" Kurama questioned, "I thought as much."

"Kurama, what are you talking about?" Yusuke asked quietly. The woman turned her gaze directly to the red haired young man.

"If you look into the basilisk's eyes, it's instant death. Only a shield or kind of mirage can stop that."

"Even so, you and your friends should be paralyzed," she warned them. She took a step forward, her brilliant gray dress swished around her legs. She stopped and smiled. "How?" she lifted her arms up casually in question.

Yusuke raised his eyebrows.

"This," Kurama's voice answered. In Kurama's hand, he held a seed.

"May I see this seed?" Kurama, seeing no danger at the time, handed it to her.

"Don't get too close to it," Hiei sneered rudely.

"I won't tolerate boyish behaviors," she shot at him indifferently. She examined the seed for less than a minute.

"This isn't from around here. Neither are you, not that I'm surprised," she gestured to them.

"It was a shield, Kurama created a shield to protect our eyes," Touya explained for anyone who still needed help.

"Tha was quick thinkin," Jin winked at the rival red head.

"And to whom do we owe this pleasure?" Hiei smirked.

"Shota." They all turned to Genkai. "She's a witch of some kind." They looked back at the perfect being. Shota smiled warmly.

"I'm so glad you noticed."

* * *

**And I do not own Shota! Or the basilisk :/ though I love them both.**


	6. Inside the Fortress of the Keeper

**Jeezy Peasy!**

* * *

The land was beautiful. The sky was magnificent. The air was clean. The river and water gurgled happily and sparkled in the friendly sunshine. Jin noted that this must have been what Lydia meant by home. He didn't dare say anything so random because of their current position.

"Hey, why does the fox get to stay out?" Yusuke glared, highly upset.

"You're Kurama is allowed to roam because he is just that, a fox. He has curiosity," she smiled and played with his hair. Kurama didn't let his distaste show on his face. He looked back at his friends and when she turned away, stared every one of them down. "I think it's fair enough to let one prisoner out, after all, you haven't caused any real harm," she pet the basilisk and sent it down in its burrow. The small confrontation rocked the ground.

She waved a hand over the upturned mess and the whole covered itself up again, nice, green, and lush. It matched the rest of the land once more.

"Besides, if he tried something he'd be dead long before he completed what ever it was."

Kurama shuttered and studied the witch woman again. What was she going to do with them?

"What do you want from us?" Kuwabara beat him to it.

"I'm curious to know what you're doing here… and I won't let you go until my guest arrives."

"Who?"

"My own… personal guest," she smiled again and covered her mouth with a chuckle. She seemed to drift over to the stump by the river bank. She sat there and patted her hair. She hummed lightly and watched the water, waiting.

"Are you sure you could best Kurama?" Yusuke asked after several minutes. She glanced up at him uncaringly.

"Positive."

"Kurama, do you think you could use one of your plant tricks? There's plenty to go around here. We've been here three hours for you to figure something out." Kurama looked over the wondrous landscape fondly.

"Unfortunately, Yusuke," Kurama informed gravely, "even if I did have an idea, which in fact I do, I can not move from this spot. I can't move at all, actually."

Yusuke shuddered at Kurama's smile. "What are you talking-" Yusuke choked when he finally saw it. Kurama's body was rooted to the ground with barbed wire and plants. Horrible looking spiders crawled over his body, tiny, but he felt that they were highly poisonous by the way Kurama stood still. Snakes wiggled up his friend's pant leg and restrained him there while others looped around his arms and waist. He looked over to Shota who smiled to herself.

"I'll kill you!" Yusuke shouted, an aura surrounded his index finger, "I'll shoot!"

"You'll miss," her cocky, unperturbed reply struck him. Someone certainly was taking extra measures to make sure safety was the number one. "I thought you say he could roam!"

"That was before you told him to hurt me."

"I never ordered him to do anything! Even if I did, he's on his own time to do what he wants! It's just perfect that he always ends up helping us!"

"Which is what I can't have," she shrugged.

"Where's the wizard?" Genkai brought up.

"He's away."

"Away where?"

She didn't answer.

"Touya?"

"Yes, Jin?" he whispered.

"Look above tha pretty witch, eh? Wha do ya make o tha?" Touya stared in earnest at the dark sky ahead.

"But it was… calm a minute ago… nice."

"Yes, it wos… ma turn," the Irish mop of red hair slipped behind the others. The wind began to turn heavily.

Shota looked up. An upset expression crossed her smug features. She glared back over the group and snapped, "Don't think I didn't see that!" She raised her arms above and the wind howled violently. The trees bended painfully and the grass soon looked like the river, flowing and relentlessly moving.

"NO!" the woman cried. The sky cleared up again and the witch woman's disheveled hair fell back straight down over her shoulders.

"It's much prettier this way," she explained.

"And quieter," Hiei grunted. Shota waltzed over to the bubble Hiei sat down in. He'd already tried his might to burst the thing, and was furious that it didn't give at all. There were three bubbles.

Hiei in one to himself for his skills that Shota didn't want anyone to aid, the second was shared between Jin, Touya, and Yusuke, while the third housed Genkai and Kuwabara.

"You know, you're pretty cute to." Hiei opened his red eyes to glare at Shota. She smirked.

"Ah, an what abou me?" Jin asked. She walked over to them.

"You?" Yusuke and Touya backed up. "You're just a pretty wonder aren't you? The amusing one?"

"HA!" Shota gasped and fell backward.

With the aid of Yusuke's spirit gun, Touya's ice shards cut the shield. Kuwabara's dimension sword sliced open his and Genkai's spirit wave came to visibility. "That's why I couldn't sense the trouble," Shota pouted toward the old woman.

"Anyone going to get _me_ out?" Hiei threatened menacingly.

"Tornado fist!" Jin's serious face was on.

He'd just about slammed a whirlwind into Shota's face when an electrical line shot him back into Kuwabara. The same purple electiricity captured Hiei's prison bubble and lifted it in the air.

"Lydia!"

"Don't touch her!" Lydia warned. Yukina and Boton were up against the rock faced entrance behind her at the mouth of the tunnel that led to the area Shota had gathered them. They didn't seem to be frightened, but they didn't watch what happened either. Danika had her arm extended, the source of the weird lightning. Lydia said something to Danika and she threw Hiei over into the trees.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Calm down, Yusuke."

"And who the hell are you?" Yusuke didn't trust her.

"Danika Falls, the one who is to help you escape," she quirked a thin, dark eyebrow.

Shota wasted no time in gaining her calm composure. The boys, minus Hiei, and Genkai were all strapped to the ground where they stood the same way Kurama was. Boton and Yukina were grabbed by a tree and screamed.

"What will it be, Lydia? Heads? Or Tails?" Shota punched the air.

Danika fell to the valley floor screaming. Lydia looked down over the rock face where she'd fallen down the path with a look of horror. "Lydia! Cover your ears! Don't look at her! AHHHHHH!" Danika's shriek caused the birds to fly far away. Everything in Lydia's vision suddenly went black.

"W-what?" she swayed unsurely. She could hear Shota's laugh, Boton and Yukina's panicked struggling, Danika's howls of agony, and the shouts of her friends and comrades.

"What are you doing to her?" she heard Touya's ice cold voice lash out.

She fell to her knees, and knew she was on the ground… but felt that she wasn't stopping. The black abyss surrounding her was depthless and just that, black. She couldn't see a thing, though she could hear it all. A woman's voice rang out above everything, echoed in her skull.

"You knew when you came back you'd have to redeem yourself through consequences. Did you think I would forget?"

"N- NO!" Lydia shouted. She cupped her ears. _'This is a horrible head ache coming on. Please stop!' _"AHHHH!" she screamed.

She'd soon found that any thought she had rang out as clear as Shota's cutting edge diction. "I must be in my head," Lydia realized.

"Very good," the sneer made her shudder.

"I don't deserve this," she shook her head, tears welling in her eyes.

"No, you don't… but you're trapped," Shota's amused chuckle reverberated inside Lydia's mind and all around her precious valley.

"NOOOOO! AHHHHHH!" Lydia shrieked in a protest of agony. Her head was splitting, ears were ringing, and her body felt cold and numb. She looked up into the black heavens and let her energy free. A large volcanic blast of white fire, fury, orange lightning, and dark confession shot out from her body and all around her personal hell.

* * *

Hiei looked up from where he lay in a deep thicket.

"What is going on!" he wondered aloud to himself. He heard a giggle from behind him.

* * *

**What kind of trouble is Hiei in?!**


	7. Clarification of the Worst Kind

**Sorry that it's kinda long. I do NOT own Shota, and I improvised a look for her. I DO own Trish and... quiet a few OCs actually... there's another plan coming up :) hehe. I love reading other fanfictions so Kudos to you all! Though you won't know that I'm talking to you unless you actually read this...! 3**

* * *

"Let's reminisce, shall we?"

Images flooded in a blur all around Lydia, a blindingly bright moving screen of colors and eerie echoing voices.

"Lydia! Come home for dinner!"

"Comin momma!" a little round faced girl with dark brown hair stumbled over to a kind, drawn looking woman in a dark green dress. Lydia stared at the woman. Her eyes glazed over with fresh salt water, she blinked at the haunting and familiar face. The woman's hair was also dark brown, and pulled in a messy but attractive bun. Her skin glowed, she was a slim lady. Her mouth quivered into a small half smile that soon trembled back into an upset frown.

The woman placed her at a dinner table and a man walked in. He pecked the woman on the lips before reaching around the chair and tickling the little girl who laughed and giggle loudly, squirming away from the wiggly fingers of the tickle monster.

"Why are you doing this," Lydia's whisper cracked and very small begged. The picture changed and the same girl grew taller and looked about three years older, seven, to be exact.

It was a beautifully sunny day, the blue sky lifting the spirits of the group gathered around the long black box. A woman in gray stood to the left of the box, the girl beside her. The woman's face was tear streaked, her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun, and her left hand held a handkerchief over her working mouth. Her large blue eyes longed for the blonde haired man with the soft green eyes. The eyes inherited by the daughter holding her other hand.

The small girl's eyes spilled water down her small face. Her soft green eyes cast down at the whole where her father was to be kept for the rest of eternity. She clutched her mother's hand, vowing never to let go of the only parent and relative she had left. The woman crouched down suddenly by the daughter. She cupped the girl's face in her hands and smiled at her.

She touched their foreheads together and told her, "Life is a wonderful thing, Lydia. Don't ever question its worth. It's alright to be sad, angry, and happy. Smile always, even at a time when you loose some one you love."

"I'll try," the girl cried. The woman hugged her close for a moment. While she went over to touch the box as it lowered, Lydia turned away. A hand touched her shoulder.

She looked up to her friend with a small white dress and brown ringlets. The girl smiled at her sadly, her own green eyes shined wetly. The young Lydia buried her face into her best friend's shoulder and the two slowly walked away from the descending box.

A figure hid in the shadows, watching the people leaving the funeral and the child sniffling into the shoulder of the Confessor. He smiled at the two. The soft green eyes looked to where the shadow was, suddenly insecure and stopped moving.

"As you can see, your memories are quite vivid and stronger than you can recall on your own."

The pink portal that had been striking curiosity and worry in the town's people for the past week and a half spit up eleven dark clothed killers. The people ran and screamed. Lydia looked around for her mother. Her friend tugged on her hand, trying to escape. One of the town mothers picked up her friend and ran off with her. Lydia reached out for her screaming friend. The dark green eyes widened and she tried to break the person's grasp so she could go help Lydia.

Lydia's mother screamed from where one of the mysterious figures hit her down into the open whole with the coffin. "Mother!" Lydia shrieked and broke off running. She sped past the people who were swarming this way and that, the sun beating down on her back, burning her skin through the black cloth. Heat and everything else seemed much harder when panic settled in. Lydia rushed to the tall, dark mass and shoved it out of the way.

"Mom!" she reached down for her mother's hand when a glove covered her mouth and yanked her off the ground.

She screamed into the hand, and kicked the person. The one who she'd pushed aside walked up and kicked her legs still. Her capture held her arms behind her back and dragged her through the portal away from her home, mother, and life.

"No!" Lydia sobbed. She plopped down on the ground near the rock that had suddenly appeared. She leaned against it and cried.

"Would you like to see how your father died?"

"You wouldn't!" Lydia looked up at her black sky with anger and terror.

* * *

"Who the hell are you?" Hiei held the woman against a tree, the cold metal of the sword only an inch from her neck. She looked frightened. Her wide eyes reflected panic and quick thinking. He pressed the sword up against her neck. She swallowed hard.

"Trish."

"Hn." He looked around. "What's in that cave?" he nodded curtly to the opening in the rock.

"Nothing."

'_Don't believe her.' _His cold stare deepened, glaring at the girl.

'_Who are you?'_ he demanded from the new, unfamiliar telepathic strand.

'_That's not important. Go.'_

'_Get out of my head.'_ He pushed Trish to the hollowed out structure.

She looked back, uncertainly, thinking to run away. His red eyes never left her cautious, guarded gray ones as the katana pressed into her back. She winced and turned back around to lead the way.

* * *

Lydia turned her head away from the horrific scene. She heard the last blade swipe and wet blood spatter. She could smell the stench. Her salt crusted eyes leaked again and the crust was washed away. She breathed heavily through her mouth, head pounding.

"I never saw this."

"But you knew."

"They wanted _me_."

"They wanted to see if you would be able to handle it. Younger bodies are stronger."

"So they practiced on my dad?"

"Unfortunately for him."

"Don't show me anything else," she cried softly, throat aching. She closed her eyes and rested her head against her arm on top of the rock.

"You're mother," Shota continued the movie. The sky shifted in a nauseous blur to show the night sky with a waxing gibbous moon directing the clouds.

* * *

"Why are ya doin this to tha gel?"

"She needs to know."

"She _does _know. That's why she's remembering!"

"She needs to _understand_" Shota sighed, choosing a better word and glancing over to the immobilized Spirit Detective.

"These are her memories, why are we watching with her?"

"Because we need to know to, right?" Shota considered Genkai for a moment.

"Not really, however, it helps a lot if you do know."

"These are _her_ memories. They are her choice to share, why exploit her so cruelly?"

"Kurama, dear, don't you want to help your friend?"

"Of course we wanna help her!" Shota ignored the tall, orange haired teenager. "Don't you wish she wasn't so guarded, so you could help her?"

"Don't you think it's appropriate to be guarded?"

"Under circumstances and to an extent, always, I agree with you there. That is why _you_ are guarded."

"We help her at her own pace. We wait for her to open up. We love her for who she is. You are causing great pain," Touya told the witch.

"I'm aware of that," she informed him with a grave smile.

"Oh, stop acting like you care! You're a witch, you don't care if you hurt us with this freak show or how badly your hurting Lydia!"

"Kuwabara," she warned. A large snake slithered up his shirt and wrapped around his neck, squeezing him enough to where he couldn't speak. "Don't defy me."

"Kuwabara, just calm down. We'll get out of this eventually."

"Dead or alyve?" Kurama grimaced at Jin's words and did a mental shrug.

Shota comfortingly patted Lydia's shoulder where her body sat catatonic on the stump. Her eyes were open, but white and unseeing. Danika's body lay beside them a few feet away.

The young Confessor had screamed until she fell deeply unconscious. Shota knew a price would come for that one. As a gift, she allowed Danika to lie there on the ground undisturbed.

Lydia had no idea the others could hear her, much less see her memories she'd worked so hard to hide from them.

* * *

She wished she could hear them.

She felt more alone than she'd ever been. More alone than at her father's funeral, than when she was kidnapped and locked away with only her torturers only interested in hearing her scream, than when she returned home to find she had nothing left.

She felt more alone as she was forced to finally witness her own memories, than when she'd been forced to kill her mother. That replay had been excruciatingly difficult to sit through. She made herself watch it though.

Shota watched from outside Lydia's head, hurting nearly as much as her reluctant prisoner.

A couple extra images passed by from Lydia's school. The teenagers ignored her, made fun of her… Lydia just watched, tears still falling but making no sound or movement. Both women felt the abandon and dead hope while Lydia wasted away living on her own in London, England. Shota saw fit to toss in one good memory. Lydia and Touya's first meeting.

A younger Demetrie had introduced the two and trained them in basic fighting skills. Touya's round face showed his delight in meeting a new friend. Lydia's face had shown curiosity and excitement. This was when the two were five years old and Lydia had been taken to the Makai on a special occasion. The two hung out for many days while the grown ups took care of business. The two were inseparable, like Lydia and Danika had been. That was why she pushed Touya and the others away.

She smiled, remembering him holding her in the forest before Hiei had interrupted them. Apparently she hadn't tried hard enough presently.

"Any one I'm close to leaves," her voice held no emotion.

"Not being close to some one will tear you apart."

"I'm aware."

"This is the only memory I have not shown them."

Lydia turned slightly to the side. She thought for a moment.

"Wait… shown them? This, is the _only_ memory, you haven't _shown them_?" she raised her voice, despite the pain it caused her dry throat. "_What have you done_?" she demanded in a dangerous tone.

Shota was not taken aback, in her present state, Lydia could not physically hurt her.

"I've only shown them what you have failed to. They needed to see it nearly as much as you do, I promise. I would not have committed such a trespass against you had it not been necessary."

"Is that so?" Lydia spat.

"I think it's so." Lydia froze.

Above her head, a red sky swirled and purple grass cushioned her feet. Her mother walked up to her.

"W- what are you doing here?" Lydia whispered. Her mother touched her cheek.

"I've been in your subconscious for a while now."

"Shota!" Lydia called.

"Shota's not here right now. She's left you to us." Lydia stared in horror past her ghostly mother. Shigure walked up to her. He reached out to caress her face. She jumped out of the way and fell to the ground.

"My pet," he cooed.

"Get away from me you're dead!"

"Yes, thanks for that," he grinned sadistically. "You know, Takashi and the Princes are still looking for you," he spoke to her like she was still a child. She gulped and laid there on the ground for a moment. She wondered if the others could hear the conversation going on.

"Yes, honey," her mother answered for her. Lydia nodded, biting her lower lip. This might be a good thing.

This way they could find out without her having to face them herself. It was cowardly, but the only way she could stand it.

"He promised I'd be safe."

"He promised that you'd be able to keep yourself save, that no one would be able to stand a chance against you," Shigure reminded her. He began smoothing down her hair.

"Was I a failed experiment?" she was going to get all she could out of her head before she ever spoke to any one about her nature.

Shigure sighed and sat back on the ground against the rock, "Yes."

"It's only because of your blood dear."

"My blood," Lydia frowned at her mother's response. If she was going to let her subconscious talk to the boys and company, she needed to understand it.

"Yes, you know you have a wizard's blood line."

"Yes," Lydia agreed. That was why Demetrie trained her in the basics with Touya, because Touya had a kind of magic of his own to contrast.

"That is why Demetrie took charge of you after…" her mother trailed off on the unimportance of restating the obvious.

"There is something in you we don't understand though," Shigure pondered, his hand rubbing his chin in professor way… a sick, disgusting professor. Her mother stroked her arm. Lydia refused to move.

In truth, both figures scared her. Shigure had done damage to her soul and body in those dark rooms on the table or in the bed. It disturbed her to have the woman she loved and killed beside her smiling.

"Your body has a designed resistance against any force," her mother kissed her forehead after saying this.

"This peculiar resistance is what made you unstable," Shigure thought.

"No," Lydia contradicted, sneering, "making me a fire demon and a confessor made me unstable."

"Wrong," Shigure sat up on his knees. Lydia looked at him, startled. Kurama had said making someone a fire demon was a hard, agonizing task. She _knew_ he had been right, she suffered through it.

"You're not a complete fire demon. Stability is debatable on that note, because an artificial fire demon is said to be unstable but we could not make you a fire demon." Lydia tried hard to literally wrap her head around this new information and suggestion.

"And I'm not a full Confessor either," she put together quickly. They nodded to her. She looked wearily up to Shigure, unwilling to ask, "How did I get the Confessor's dreadful power?"

"Ah, that," Shigure obviously didn't want to discuss this one, "Well… okay here's the thing. You knew Takashi wanted to make a fire demon and confessor weapon." She nodded impatiently. "He also fed you a Confessor's blood."

"… _WHAT?!_" Lydia shouted, bolting upright for a moment. "Who?"

"I'm not sure we can answer that dear."

Of course not, because she herself didn't know.

"It hurt you horribly though."

"The whole damn thing hurt me you ass," she retorted.

"I mean, you remember all those needles and pins, right? Every time you were dragged and strapped down in my workshop you eyed them with the terror that I would use them on you."

"You kinda did," she snorted ruefully.

"I only teased your flesh with them," he eyed her shoulders that the sleeveless white dress exposed. She had small scars over the skin there. "Did you ever think who they were for?" Lydia shuttered at the horror.

She then knew exactly what had happened to that Confessor.

"Takashi offered his blood to use to your creation because he is a fire demon …"

"You have a wizard's blood line…"

"You're not a complete fire demon…"

"Your body has a resistance that can stop evil or any forces…"

"Not complete…" Lydia listened to the two stating facts one after the other. She held a hand out for them to stop, then sat up on her elbows.

"I have powers that a wizard would possess from my blood, but not many any more due to my formulation. That makes me kinda like Jin, and Touya. They have limited powers too.

I have fire demon blood which is why I can become unreasonably blind as to what I'm doing when enraged and gives me the speed I've gained and muscle endurance. And because the fire demon blood and virus did not completely knock out my wizard genes, I'm not a complete fire demon.

It's because of a resistance living in my body, that is undetectable, that is why I could not become a Fire Demon.

You stripped a Confessor of her powers… a direct strip to where she's probably dead, and that blood is now circulating in my system making my life more like Hell.

Thus, having an incomplete transformation of four different types of energy, the third being unknown… I'm unstable and can not always control myself as I please or need…" Lydia slowly figured out. She stared, incredulously in front of her, past Shigure and her mother. The realization of all of this hit her. A satisfied feeling of finally understanding swept over her body.

Her mother smiled broadly at her, Shigure nodded in self satisfaction. The two disappeared like a mirage. The red sky above her dulled and the purple grass faded away.

She blinked, and saw the sunlight shining down on the green forest, green, green, grass, and the sparkling blue river that bubbled happily in the valley. She blinked up at the dark clouds that were slowly drifting over the valley from the far right. She looked up at Shota who stared down at her expectantly, her arms folded.

"The sky is upset… it's churning with grief," her paled green eyes looked into Shota's almond shaped brown eyes.

"Only since _you_ returned."

Lydia looked down at her hands and away from the criticizing glare.

* * *

**Did that clear things up?**


	8. Act Now That Betrayal's Aside

**I'm sorry that this one is really long, but it's VERY INTERESTING! In case you didn't know-**

**I OWN: Glandur, Lydia, Giligan Prowd, Demtrie, Trish, Aftan, Lilla, Danika Falls, Sierra, golge demons, Lydia's parents, the dark assassins, Takashi, 3 Princes, and the area known as Sprite Trees. **

**I DO NOT OWN: Yu Yu Hakusho, Legend of the Seeker, gars, Agaden Reach, Shota, Samuel, Midlands, wizards, basilisks and etc...**

**I apologize that I improvised Jin's accent and Shota's appearance, and Samuel's appearance. **

**Review! Thank you so much for the review Mary S. Jane, as you see, I don't get many. Thanks to kuramacherry to! I greatly appreciate it :D**

* * *

"How did you know of all this?"

"Lydia, you should be able to answer that question." Lydia nodded and addressed the group without looking up.

"Shota is a powerful witch woman, and a psychic. She can see into the future, but only at what the outcome will be at a particular time. The future always changes, but she knows the gist of everything." Lydia finally looked up at her friends. "Shota, let them go," she said vehemently.

"Hold your tongue," the witch replied in the same manner. The vines and roots that held them to the ground lifted away and returned to their natural places. The snakes and spiders still wiggled and crawled around. Lydia glared at Shota.

"Would you really have me let down my defenses when you so graciously held yours high in the faces of those who called you 'friend'?" Shota gestured to Lydia's white garment. Lydia rubbed her arms under the chastisement.

"I'm sorry, Mistress." The entire valley seemed to fall still.

"Mistress?" Jin asked incredulously.

"Lydia, did you work for this woman?" Genkai inquired a little taken aback but not showing it.

"Yes," the girl complied softly. "She taught me many things about my power," she chuckled, "all the things that Demetrie didn't. He feared the Thryne."

"Darling," Shota suddenly spoke lovingly, "you can not keep up with this self blaming pity. It's gotten you into this mess," she waved over the unmoving group still under the weight of poisonous snakes. Kuwabara was crying by this time. Before Shota could continue, there was a loud screech.

Shota's head snapped up to the coming creatures. There were five flying, green, hairy beasts diving into the valley from over the mountains to which the grand place was hidden. Even at the distance, the Spirit Detective's gang and their two demon companions could tell that they were large predators with long razor sharp talons and cut throat fangs in a row of equally sharp teeth. Shota lifted the snake and spider curse from the group so they could fend for themselves. After all, leaving them there as statues to be broken was too cruel, how would they then save the worlds?

"Danika!" Lydia cried and covered her friend's body with her own.

"Do something!" Shota commanded at the others when the first beast of prey reached her.

Genkai shoved Touya onto the ground before one came up behind him and hooked the back of his neck in its ugly grasp. Touya stared, shocked at what nearly happened and shouted to Jin to be careful. The wind master gathered his tornado fists together around his wrists and ran into one of the ten foot structures. The beast was knocked several yards back, but not in the least finished.

Kuwabara battled one of the beasts with his spirit sword in hard core combat.

Kurama kept his distance, using his whip to who ever needed it the most at the given time, usually Touya because his ice had as good an effect as Hiei's sword did to the basilisk.

"Ice'll do no good, Touya!" Jin picked Touya up and used the air to propel them to off to the side, "betta stay hea," he smiled warmly before speeding off with a tornado fist to finish his opponent.

Kuwabara finally succeeded in slicing up his nasty antagonist. The stench of the boiling green blood was too much for him and he passed out.

Genkai and Kurama finished off one of the beasts in a gruesome attack that ending in the creature basically exploding and Kurama and Genkai were left without a single scratch.

Lydia shot lighting at one that came close to her and Danika. "Ah!" she screamed with terror. Boton and Yukina came out of no where and huddled beside the two Confessors.

"I'll try to help her," Yukina reasoned, reaching for Danika. Lydia backed off a minute and studied the brave ice maiden who clearly displayed her horror and determination in the matter at hand.

Boton screamed and threw her hands up whenever a creature came within 12 feet and Lydia would throw it back with orange lightning.

"Come on, Danika," she whispered desperately, kissing the said woman's forehead.

Two creatures flew up and dove down upon the group at once. Shota threw her hands out in two directions. A silver lighting wire hit both creatures and cooked them before they just evaporated into the surprisingly still fresh air.

"Ya! That'll teach ye!" Jin shouted enthusiastically to the beast he'd hit for the fifth time with his tornado fist. He was about to go in for another one when-

"SPIRIT GUN!"

- A blue blast passed just in front of his face and he stumbled back very stunned and wide eyed. The beast was cast into oblivion, still screeching deafeningly in rage and pain. Jin recovered after a moment. "Oi, Urameshi I 'ad that one."

"Ha, your welcome pal," Yusuke put his hands on his hips.

Shota looked at Yusuke. "I'm impressed, Yusuke."

"Well, thanks. You're not so bad yourself," he found himself saying, much to his dismay. His brows furrowed and he tried to think of a way to take back his comment and shoot a rude one. Shota gave an amused smile and turned back to Lydia.

Yukina's hands were emitting a blue light over the deeply sleeping Danika.

"Child, you'll never wake her that way," Shota walked over to her. The rest of the gang, alert, moved over to the five women. Touya coming up and sitting beside them. Shota placed a hand on Danika's head. "This way will take a while so do not move my hand," she started, "What is your name?"

"Mine?" Yukina asked, surprised and nervous.

"Yes," Shota smiled wonderfully at her, showing straight, white teeth in line with her beautiful face.

"Yukina…"

"You are a strong girl, I'm proud of you for coming over here to help Danika. I know the Mother Confessor will be greatly pleased when she wakes up."

"I thought Lydia was the Mother Confessor?" Kuwabara said, pinching his nose and appearing groggy from his little unexpected nap.

"Now," Shota nodded to Lydia, being friendly but giving an order. Lydia took a deep breath.

"The Mother Confessor is the most powerful Confessor of her generation. She is the most looked up to, most needed, and most feared by her people."

"Which is everyone," everyone stayed silent and paid full attention to the now waking Mother Confessor, Danika Falls. "There are male Confessors, but they are not to be kept alive because they will turn evil, no questions asked, no exceptions."

The group didn't quite understand this, except for Kurama, who eyed Lydia curiously. Lydia didn't show anything, only said for clarification,

"A male confessor would earn the happenings of all of Chapter Black."

Many of the boys gasped. Shota looked slightly confused, Lydia waved her hand over it.

"Chapter Black is a tape of all the worst humanity has ever committed on itself."

Shota nodded grimly.

"There'd be another Holocaust?" Kuwabara asked, concerned and horror struck.

"That is what I'm afraid of," Lydia finally touched her stomach.

"What?" Yusuke raised his eyebrows.

"I am not the Mother Confessor because I am not a Confessor," this didn't help Yusuke at all.

"Lydia is an image of a Confessor, Yusuke. Remember? She's part Confessor, Fire Demon, Wizard, and whatever the last fourth of her make up is," Kurama notified.

"Danika is the Mother Confessor, because she was born of Confessor family," Lydia smiled at her first best friend.

"Lydia is still a Confessor, only not _just_ a Confessor. It is a little trying to understand," Shota agreed, standing up again. "Lydia is called a Mother Confessor due to the great power she possesses. She needs just as much protection as our natural Mother Confessor."

Just then, a loud screech made them all jump with surprise. What Yusuke thought was out of character was that Shota jumped in front of them all to shield them from the sixth beast's attack.

"I thought there were only five!" Kuwabara complained loudly and disappeared behind the other boys' backs but in front of the girls to keep his honor and some of his dignity.

Before any defense attacks were made, a black shape circled around the group. It was too fast for anyone to comprehend what it was. The beast stood stock still for a moment, frozen in its tracks. Little streams of blood stared trickling down its skin. In a few places, blood began to spit out and spatter the group. Abruptly, the whole body fell apart into a fifty piece, bloody massacre mess. Hiei was left standing nonchalantly and bored behind the heap.

"That was as easy as that obsessive idiot in the forest of dead things," he rolled his eyes.

"My, Samuel?" Shota challenged.

"Um, Hiei," Lydia made an extremely poor attempt to distract the new born issue.

"You killed my pet," Shota stated murderously.

"Hiei," Lydia said again calmly, placing a gently hand on his black clothed shoulder. He shrugged it off.

"What?"

"Where did you put them?" As Hiei turned around in a huff to bring out his discovery, Lydia begged Shota not to kill him. "They don't know anything about this place except that you are not to be messed with. We need him," she whispered fiercely. "And you didn't tell me gars were this close to the midlands!" she said, referring to the creatures.

"It's worse than that," Danika replied, "Those were the last of the long tailed gars."

"Are there short tailed gars?" Yusuke asked.

"Oh, yes," Lydia exhaled knowingly.

"They are the fastest, more murderous, and now they are the only ones left," Danika raised her eyebrows and voice. Lydia groaned. Shota didn't say anything.

"You mean these?" Hiei asked tauntingly, bringing out two frightened women and one angry woman with her hands and legs tied up and a gag in her mouth.

"Danika!" the two women with the liberty to speak cried out. Danika held her arms out. They looked to the tough and intimidating Hiei before shrugging to each other and running over to the Mother Confessor.

"I told you I'd find you," she laughed to them.

"I think it's time for an introduction," Shota suggested with another special amused smirk. The gagged woman made a noise and Hiei growled at her.

Kurama nodded. "Right. I'm Kurama, this is Yusuke, Kuwabara, Genkai, and over there, as you've met, is Hiei."

"Ello, I'm Jin!"

"Danika, of course."

"No need to restate the obvious," Shota passed on.

"I'm Boton, and this pretty thing is Yukina!"

"Um, thanks Boton," Yukina smiled sweetly.

"Oh, you're so beautiful," Kuwabara went over and took Yukina's hand. They blushed furiously.

"I'm Lydia," Lydia stood away from the group, smiled and gave a small wave.

"My name is Touya," he moved over and stood beside Lydia, wrapping an arm around her. "You two must be two of the five Confessors we request help from."

The girls looked up to Danika. Danika seemed to be the tallest of the Confessors.

"My name is Aftan," the one with a blonde pony tail and adorable brown eyes spoke up first.

"Mine is Sierra," she held her hand out to shake Lydia's. Her ocean blue eyes smiled happily at them all. Her hair was short and auburn. She looked at Kurama and smiled sheepishly. "I've never met another red head before," she told them quietly. They all laughed.

"Then it's a pleasure to be the first," he smiled and took her hand and shook it like a gentleman.

"Great, we have three of the five," said Genkai.

"Four," spat the woman whom Hiei had kindly gagged with a cloth from her too long gray dress fashioned after Shota's but not nearly as attractive. Her mousy dirty blonde hair looked like a mop around her head. "And I'm _not_ going to help you," she smirked evilly.

"Now hold up, why not?" Lydia asked, annoyed with the demeanor of this confessor.

"I serve my Mistress. I don't help anyone, and I don't leave."

"Now why would Shota take in any one as dependent and self absorbed as you?"

"You dare speak her name!" the girl shouted angrily. Hiei looked to both women, deciding whether or not he should shut up this Trish.

"Your _Mistress_ and I go father back than you think. At least we're on a first name basis."

Trish clamped her mouth shut into a thin, agitated line. It was crystal clear that she would not help them unless forced and she highly disliked Lydia. "You _left_ my Mistress."

"She was never under my instruction, Trish. Calm yourself," Shota finally spoke to the frazzled confessor who blinked at her.

"Mistress," the girl complained, "this stupid boy tied me up. Will you release me?" Shota waved a hand over her dress first to magically clean off the blood from the creature, then waved in the direction of Trish. Trish's bindings came clear.

Lydia studied Trish carefully, eyes never leaving the woman's suddenly kind appearing face.

"Thank you," she smiled at Shota and swayed. Then before anyone could blink, except for the Confessors, Trish held Hiei by the throat.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Shota warned quickly when Hiei reached to his scabbard. He looked at them, then to the girl who, embarrassing enough, held him hostage.

"Let him go, Trish," Lydia commanded, sauntering over to the two. No one else moved, they didn't know what was going to happen.

"Step any closer and I'll confess him," the girl smirked, holding Hiei still in her gaze. No one saw it, Trish didn't sense it, but Lydia was suddenly behind her.

"Confess him and I'll confess you," Lydia's voice was dark and suddenly close to Trish. Trish glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Lydia's hand ready to snatch her throat if she so much let out a breath. "The things I'll have you do for me, Trish," Lydia drawled, taunting dangerously.

Trish was flirting with fate. She glared back at Hiei.

"He will not harm me."

"Hiei, will stay still," Lydia ordered in respect of the two opposite lives involved in this argument. Trish threw Hiei onto the ground and Lydia grabbed Trish's neck anyway.

"Lydia," Shota addressed her.

"I don't see why you would put up with such a slimy servant," Lydia turned Trish's head to the side, "that's all you are really, a confessor given up on her duties."

"We captured the other confessors so there would be no rivalry between worlds to create bitches like _you_," Trish smiled, gleefully. Lydia turned her head back to face her. Trish's eyes widened and she stumbled back at the force of Lydia's hand when Lydia slapped her across the face. Trish looked back slightly fearful.

"Don't worry, you will _not_ be coming with us." Lydia turned on her heel, took Hiei's hand, and led him back to the group.

"Mistress!" Trish called, "We must take our prisoners back! And what's a few more servants," she gestured cruelly to the rest.

"Can it, Trish." Trish looked stunned at her Mistress. Her hands fell to her sides.

"Wh- excuse me?"

"These Confessors were never my prisoners, they were yours. I would not have treated them so but I could not know where you kept them because those assassin men from the portal came and asked me. I had to play it as safe as I could," she'd then turned back to Lydia and Danika.

"I could not directly help the Confessors," she pulled Sierra and Aftan to her in a brief hug, "If I knew where they were hidden, we'd all be dead right now. Though Trish could have been more original with the hiding place," she scolded. Trish stared, mouth agape.

"You USED me?"

"Servant," Lydia reminded uncaringly.

"Why, you-" Trish started toward Lydia who braced herself to kill the twit. Shota snapped her fingers at the girl and Trish found she couldn't move or, to everyone's pleasure… couldn't speak.

"I only took you because Samuel needed a wrangler."

Sierra giggled. "He was a little rowdy, wasn't he sis?" Aftan smirked in response and put an arm around Sierra. Yukina walked up to them.

"Would you like me to heal your scratches?" The two in question looked down on their smudged with dirt skin and cuts. They nodded.

"So you two are sisters?" Yukina struck up a short conversation. Aftan began chatting with the teal haired Yukina. Sierra looked around.

"Where's Lilla?"

"Lilla's dead…" Danika said sadly, picking at her long sleeved white apparel. "I was at her funeral, heart hounds got her out in the Sprite Trees."

Lydia looked to Danika, "I'm so sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am," the Mother Confessor turned to the unnatural Mother Confessor with tears in her eyes, "Now we're two people short on saving trillions." Danika started to shake, crying softly.

The three appropriate Confessors comforted her lovingly.

"Numbers is all you have now," Shota gathered her elegant gray dress and walked over to a bird bath. She looked into the water for a moment.

"Lydia come walk with me." Lydia left the others to do as they pleased and converse with one another. Finding a common ground would help them to fight together more effectively.

They walked through the exquisite forest in awe. Shota lived there all the time and she never got over its natural beauty.

"I suppose you'd like to know if you're pregnant?" she stated, more than asked, to start the conversation. Lydia took in the environment around her, wondering if she'd survive to see something like it again.

"I am worried… this place hasn't changed a bit," she was pleased to admit.

The two continued slowly, quietly, blissfully.

"The things they did to you… I really am sorry," Shota admitted, looking at the made Mother Confessor.

She just nodded solemnly, "I know," she gave a weak smile. Shota put an arm around the woman's shoulders.

"You are not pregnant." Lydia let out a sigh of relief. She closed her eyes so her nose could pick up the earthy smell easier.

"There is something inside of you though."

"The resistance," Lydia's unemotional voice confirmed.

"I've never seen anything like it in my years."

"That's a lot," Lydia exhaled, eyes still closed but raising her eyebrows.

"It isn't something you'll ever get rid of," Lydia thought about this a long time, "You were born with this symbiote of darkness." Lydia stopped.

"Symbiote?"

"Yes. I expect it to be something sensitive to light."

"I wouldn't know, I have no idea what you mean honestly." Shota thought for a moment, watching Lydia. She looked her up and down, noticing the girl was nervous again.

"Ask your friend Kurama," Lydia looked up, "I have a strong feeling he knows."

"I think I must be sick."

"What dear? I think you're fine."

"No," Lydia struggled to breath, "I feel…h-hot and…" Shota slowly turned to face the girl. Her face was twisted in pain and confusion. Shota spotted a wriggling something under Lydia's clothes.

"Not snakes or spiders," the witch noted. She quickly caught Lydia who had begun to fall and carried her back to the group.

The congregation looked at her suspicious and startled.

"Get out of here, Lydia needs to get out of here. She needs help."

"What kind of help?" Yusuke took the nearly unconscious patient.

"I'm not sure," Shota smoothed out her dress. "Trish, go with them."

"I don't think so!"

"Now!" Shota bellowed before turning and running off into a tunnel opening. Yusuke ran after her and led the group out into Agaden Reach again.

"Continue down this path, _hurry_, because the portal has just let out more killers and Lydia doesn't have time!" Shota paused to stroke Lydia's sweaty forehead.

"Yusuke…" she struggled.

"Don't talk, Lydia," Yusuke looked around the others frantically.

"Yusuke…"

"What?" he looked back to her, concerned.

"You're hurting my… b-back!" she gasped and tried to leap out of his arms. He fought to keep hold of her.

"Let her go, she'll confess you in this state. She's unstable, protect her by _any_ means, but don't touch her!" The forest filled with sounds from animals unseen being alerted to presences also unseen. "Trish, take them to the fields before the moon's shine appears. Heart hounds are hungry this time of year." Shota left them in a rush and they darted through the woods.

Trish ran through the trees, leading them to their new destination. She brought them to a cliff side. There was a river and lots of greenery below, as well as scary looking rocks. She looked across to the other side where the wildlife started up again because the Reach could not drain the life from something it couldn't reach.

"How do we get across to the fields?" Yusuke asked. Lydia was wavering, looking down at the torrential river.

Trish looked around, most of the group was on the other side.

"You don't," she said and pushed Lydia over the side of the cliff.

"Lydia!" Yusuke shouted and took a dive after her.

"YUSUKE!" several voices called as he tumbled down in a rock slide before hitting the bank. He didn't rest a moment before picking his battered body back up and chasing Lydia's body downstream.

Danika gave Trish a murderous glare while most everyone else took off down the rocks after Yusuke and Lydia. Hiei and Genkai stayed behind with Danika.

"How could you be such an ass?" Genkai asked of the confessor. Trish smiled at Danika and blew her a kiss. Hiei took out his katana and made a swing at her. Trish threw neon green lightning at him. The shock made him drop his weapon and singed his hand. He snarled up at her. She laughed and backed away.

"Better go after them before something else does."

"Let the gars eat your soul," Genkai reasoned and took off.

"Lydia, right?" Trish asked in regard to Danika's unwavering glare. "She's probably drowned by now, look at those rushing currents!" she giggled joyfully.

Her shrill laughter stopped when the sound of howling reached her ears. She looked up to the sky and her smile began to fail.

"The sun is setting," Danika informed her, Hiei leapt off into the trees. Trish whirled around, eyes popping with terror. "Now the dogs can have you," Danika smirked. With that, the Mother Confessor turned at left the confessor to her much deserved fate.

"Please!" Trish called down to her. "AHHH!" they all heard her blood curdling scream. Kurama, Genkai, Danika, Jin, and Aftan even saw the hounds tear her apart, limb from limb, flesh from bones.

Danika just shrugged to those around her and ran down after Yusuke. The tragedy now over with, they all snapped back into common sense and followed like wise.

Lydia heard the last of Trish's screams.

She couldn't keep her eyes open because the water was lapping over her. She kept her legs out apart in front of her, something she'd learned on basic survival from her father when she was little and went on fishing trips. She couldn't even laugh at his knack for dangerous fishing. She was too busy breathing when she could, relishing in the cooling water, and enjoying the absence of pressure paining her back.

Being blind, she didn't see the sharp rock ahead of her. Her right leg slammed into it. She was somehow sent up over the rock and head first into the rushing, violent water. She was tossed this way and that, held under water mercilessly for periods of time gasping every time her head finally broke the waves.

Her right leg felt numb and she couldn't do much of anything but beg that it would all be over soon. Just when she'd all but given up, she saw a thick vine growing in the side of the opposing cliff from where she once stood. She grasped it and with great difficulty pulled herself up onto a large rocky surface two feet above the crashing water.

She laid there, barely breathing and soaking wet for about five minutes when someone suddenly appeared by her.

She heard the sound of ice cracking and giving way as the water pushed it down stream where she was glad not to have been dragged. Touya knelt beside her, scared for her life.

"Lydia," he kept saying.

She looked over to him, "I'm here," she choked.

"Oh, thank God!" he breathed. He spared her an exhausted smile which she returned with a pained one. He went to touch her forehead.

"AH!" she screamed. He jerked his hand away.

"What? What is it?"

"You're going to freeze my body if you touch me," she lightly chuckled, telling him wearily, disappointedly. He sighed and looked into her pale green eyes. _'They used to be so soft and kind,'_ he remembered. Hiei jumped down from an unknown location.

"Lydia, can you breathe?"

"Yes."

"Hurt anywhere?"

"All over," she complained. He nodded and picked her up.

If she had truly been hurt, she'd have given a specific spot. He caught site of her badly bruised leg and made a mental note to get Yukina to fix it. Hiei and Touya stood.

Touya cut down excess plant life with Hiei's katana so they could get to the cave Hiei mentioned they could all spend the night in.

Hiei clutched Lydia's wet, slippery body to him. She had long given up staying awake and he kept her warm as the coming night air grew very cold. He watched Touya swing his sword.

"Couldn't you have used your own of ice?" he complained.


	9. True Lovers' Fashion

**I do not know what color bananas are in the Midlands... but red is a color of poisonous substances in the Midlands. If you want to know the story behind that- I'll be happy to tell ya ;) Yes I use Gwen Stefani to spell bananas :P **

**The song used in this chapter is "Bye Bye" by Jo Dee Messina- I DO NOT OWN IT**

**I also put in a lyric from "I'm A Gummy Bear" I DO NOT OWN**

**In the last chapter I said confessor and Confessor. The lower case is just referring to someone who doesn't deserve the title or has low power. **

**In the lyrics, they're basically singing the whole time but the part that Lydia_ really_ sings is in quotations.**

**I know this strays from the subject a bit, but it felt a little empty inbetween the coming chapter and the previous so I added a stress/comic relief. The characters need one, I need one, it was kinda fun to write haha. I wasn't sure about it- but there's a surprise near the end. Think I should've put it in?**

* * *

"I don't think that's very appropriate," Aftan's smug tone scolded Yusuke. He stomped his foot again and looked at her.

The two had been arguing over the color of bananas.

"They should be yellow."

"Well here, they're blue," Aftan took a bite of one of the many bananas Sierra had gathered.

They had an assortment of fruit, nuts, a couple of rabbits that Aftan caught. No one was particularly interested in killing the cute bunny, but they needed to eat.

"What about apples? Red is poisonous around here," Aftan tossed at Yusuke.

"SO?" he didn't like to lose an argument.

Lydia sat by the fire in warm, fleece blanket Danika had gone home to get.

"We'll be going back through the portal tomorrow," Kurama told them, handing out a salad he'd made.

"Back to fight," Kuwabara stared into the flames.

"What's it like?" Sierra asked carefully, sitting down by Lydia, "to be far away from home?" Lydia blinked at the orange and yellow light.

"I'm not sure you want to ask me that. I elected to leave after I'd been taken."

"What did it feel like?" Sierra pressed, auburn hair bobbing around her angular face.

"Sierra," Aftan warned. The young Confessor just glanced at her older sister.

"It felt… cold," Lydia started. Touya got off the rock ledge where he sat with Hiei to sit behind her. "I felt lost, alone, and hopeless. I didn't have anyone on earth like I had here at home." They were all quiet. Jin put a few more sticks in the fire and used the wind to get them going strongly.

"This time you'll have us," Danika spoke. She sat back beside Kurama and picked at the salad resting in the hollowed out bark of a tree.

"Never thought I'd literally go _camping_," Yusuke commented gruffly, grabbing a handful of nuts and chewing them hungrily.

"I did once, but with a tent and real food," Kuwabara scratched his head in thought. His face brightened. "This is our first camping trip, my sweet!"

Yukina looked quickly at him. Her red eyes reflected amusement and she was surprised.

"Yes, this is Kazuma. What else do you do on a camping trip, for fun?" Yukina asked. Kuwabara gave her a twenty watt smile, delighted that she'd asked him a question.

"Well, Yukina," his began explaining various sporting activities ending with tying grass together to make bracelets.

"You're such a chick," Yusuke complained, kicking him in the back.

"Urameshi that hurt!"

"So get over it."

"You better be nice, we're stuck here all night together!"

"Yeah, I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky, gummy bear."

"Lydia?" Lydia turned happily away from the fisted fracas.

"Can we 'ave a bit o music?" She smiled at Jin.

"Hmmm," she thought carefully.

"Music?" Aftan questioned.

"She's quite the singer," Hiei allowed him self briefly into the conversation before appearing to sleep again, though they all saw him open his eyes to watch Kuwabara darkly whenever he heard Yukina's name involved.

"Boton, do you have your Ipod with you?" Lydia wondered. The ferry girl looked up. Boton reached into her pockets frowning. Out of her kimono she brought out a dark purple device. She excitedly handed it over to Lydia.

"You won't be able to hear it," Yusuke told her in a sigh.

"Spirit World merchandise is much better made than human goods." Yusuke mimicked Boton's cheery voice and got up to stretch.

"How about this one?" Sierra pointed to a random song number, curiosity striking her ocean blue eyes.

"It's been a while since I've sang a song," Danika sat up and requested Lydia's hand.

"Who me?" the said girl joked and got up. The two started dancing a kind of old waltz only known to the midlands before the music started.

"If you don't move to the music you're going to get annoyed," Genkai was slightly interested.

"Haha, okay," Lydia stopped twirling with Danika and handed the Ipod back to Boton. Boton looked at the screen as an electric guitar, bass drum, and cymbal began to play together from a mysteriously tiny stereo pair of Spirit World headphones.

"Oh, Keiko loves this song! It's a shame she's not here to enjoy it."

"So we'll just have to dance with her when the revolution's over," Lydia winked at Boton and began to dance oddly with Danika. Everyone's mood seemed to cheer up, except for Hiei's, at the sight of Lydia's eagerness to have fun.

Boton picked on Yusuke.

_Boy you sure look good there standin' in the doorway in the sunset light  
Maybe I read you wrong thinkin' you could be my Mr. Right  
I was puttin' my heart and soul on the line  
Said you needed some time, just a little more time to make up your mind  
Well it's been long enough  
Time is up  
_

Sierra grabbed Aftan and began to dance with the other two Confessors while Yusuke pushed Boton away from him.

_Bye bye love, I'll catch you later_

Lydia and Boton waved to the crowd.

_Got a lead foot down on my accelerator and the rearview mirror torn off  
I ain't never lookin' back. And that's a fact.  
_

_I've tried all I can imagine  
I've begged and pleaded in true lover's fashion  
I've got pride, I'm takin' it for a ride  
Bye bye, bye bye my baby, bye bye_

"Car song, okay," Yusuke finally got up and joined Kurama in snapping to the song. "You don't dance?" he asked the fox demon unbelievingly.

"Oh, I dance," Kurama grinned and let Boton drag him over to the others.

Yusuke looked around like he was searching for a second exit that wouldn't involve going through the temporary dance floor. Kurama's hand grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him onto the floor with the rest. Boton hugged Yusuke tightly and Kurama left him to his new found misery.

_Don't think all those tears are gonna hold me here like they've done before  
You'll find what's left of us in a cloud of dust on highway 4  
Baby what did you expect me to do  
Just sit around and wait on you  
Well I'm through watchin' you just skate around the truth  
And I know it sounds trite  
I've seen the light_

Kuwabara twirled an excited and laughing Yukina. She squealed with delight as she danced along with the group.

Jin jumped up and made a small train with Aftan and Sierra in tow. Touya figured he'd join for a minute.

Hiei tried to block the noise out.

_Bye bye love, I'll catch you later  
Got a lead foot down on my accelerator and the rearview mirror torn off  
'Cause I ain't never lookin' back, and that's a fact.  
_

_I've tried all I can imagine  
I've begged and pleaded in true lover's fashion  
I've got pride, I'm takin' it for a ride  
Bye bye, bye bye my baby, bye bye_

Lydia broke the hold she'd had on Danika and Yusuke's hands. She was a little out of breath and flushed from so much twirling and jumping. She decided to open her mouth and sing.

"Finale!"

She smiled at Jin before continuing. Touya was knocked into her and they used each other to stand up while the lyrics ran again.

"_I'd lost the game I guess"_

She shrugged to him and kept his hands in hers.

"_I did my best to win the part"_

She jumped up and down now.

"_Now I'm leavin' here with what's left of my heart." _

She settled down and waved to Touya this time.

"_Bye bye, I'll catch you later  
Got a lead foot down on my accelerator and the rearview mirror torn off  
'Cause I ain't never lookin' back."_

She shook her head. He smiled, understanding her hidden message. She was going to start being free.

"_You can count on that."_

She winked and he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"_I've tried all I can imagine  
I've begged and pleaded in true lover's fashion  
I've got pride, I'm takin' it for a ride  
Bye bye, bye bye my baby, bye bye_

Bye bye  
Ooh baby"

They created two circles and skipped by each other.

"_Oh oh  
Bye bye, bye bye my baby, bye bye!"_

"Woo!" most of them cheered.

"That was a nice stress reliever," Kurama admitted with a shy smile.

"It's so good to have Lydia singing with joy again," Boton gushed. Lydia smiled at her blue haired friend.

"It really is," they agreed. Touya hugged her tighter. If any one noticed the way those two acted with each other and the special look they always had, they didn't speak up.

Lydia looked up to her blue haired _best_ friend. He watched her just intently. She shifted in his arms to look at him better. She seemed to be thinking over something very carefully, calculating almost.

"I guess once wouldn't hurt," she told him meaningfully.

No one but the boy in black sitting on the ledge behind them saw the two old friends kiss each other.

When the fire was put out and everyone settled down for the night, Hiei smirked at the ice apparition and the Confessor holding each other's hand looking outside for the moon.

Danika had an arm around Lydia protectively. The other Confessors slept on the other side of Danika. Wherever Confessors were, they tended to protect and help each other. Danika wasn't going to let any harm come to any of them. They were the last four, technically three.

Touya kissed Lydia's hand. She just watched the moon, becoming more and more detached.

"How's your back?"

"Burning," she whispered back to Touya.

"Feeling dangerous?"

"In what sense?" Yusuke seemed to have rubbed off a little on Lydia. She allowed Touya to scoot closer to her and together, they turned Lydia's back to his ice chest without waking Danika.

The next morning they left for the portal. It took them all day to reach the pink gate. Boton called Koenma with the aid of Lydia's wizard powers. The signal almost didn't register in the Midlands. They all took one last look at the mostly calm, serene blue sky. The birds chirped happily oblivious to the end of the peace. They watched the lush, green tree's and sweeping with beauty and swaying in the breeze meadows for a solid ten minutes before giving each other brave smiles, breathing in the last cent of fresh air, and climbing through the successfully, finally closing portal.

* * *

**Here's hoping that they live to see beauty again. If you join my toast- comment "Aye!" haha**


	10. Second Distraction With A Warning

**And the fight begins.**

* * *

As soon as Yusuke stepped in the portal, he was thrown backwards by a large fist. Boton took Yukina to the edge of the trees where the portal had taken them.

"This isn't Genkai's… WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Kuwabara was stunned.

The sky was pitch black, not even the stars or the moon was shining. There were many demons of an assortment of sizes, colors, and ugliness spread out in the clearing in the middle of no where.

Genkai wasted no time asking questions and ran into action. Jin and Touya did much the same, followed by Kurama and Hiei had already jumped ahead in the battle. Every where there was some sort of creature trying to kill one of the protagonists to the upcoming revolution. Sierra and Aftan had proved to be decent in martial arts, and took on the lower demons. Kuwabara was thrown this way and that by a B class jerk with a long, green snakelike tongue and a foul stench.

"I'm going to drain you of all your life energy," the thing hissed to the wide eyed teenager. The spirit sword glowed brightly in Kuwabara's hand and blocked a hit from the demon's whip-like tail.

Lydia and Danika came out of the portal not a minute after all of this had already started.

"It's an ambush!" Lydia glared angrily into the woods.

"Lydia! Take them!" Danika threw a harsh looking dagger to the creation of destruction. That is what Lydia had decided to call herself.

She ran head long into a charging golge demon. The demon belched loudly when she stabbed the dagger into his stomach. He fell over with a loud thud, body bouncing and horrid blood spilling out through the whole in his abdomen. Lydia looked at the dagger curiously. A faint glow faded from around the edges of the red stained metal. The whole inside the demon still burned wider. She looked over to Danika who was busy kicking around a C class demon.

"My, my dear, you must tell me where you got this," Lydia muttered to herself, eyes raking over the blade carefully. She felt something hot press against her.

She turned to the 15 foot tall monster slowly. She stared up at its beady eyes, feet taking baby steps backward while the demon stomped closer. He took out a large club and swatted Lydia off the ground. She flew through the air and made a landing in the tree, having stopped herself by grabbing a branch then swinging over to rest on it. Her right leg still hurt, and now her left side did.

"Damn," she hissed, clutching her ribs, "Shota said the fix was temporary. You're going to open my hardly healed wound!" she hollered at her opponent.

"Hn, target," she smiled confidently. She lifted her hand. The orange lightning screamed by over top the fighters below and cut through the giant being. He still walked ahead, blood spilling and flesh melting along with agonizing pain didn't seem to bother him. "Gosh, why do you have to act like Yusuke?" she complained, remembering his story battling the Saint Beast Suzaku.

A huge eruption of light and energy exploded from the far end of the field. Four beings gracefully walked out of the powerful blast amidst the flying rock and bodies of those unfortunate enough to stand in the way.

"Lydia, that won't be enough," one of the men with black hair spoke to the group. The three majesties beside him smirked at one another.

The noise was far too great and the distance between the newcomers and Lydia wasn't close enough, but she still heard him. She broke her gaze from the coming A class demon and paled at the site of the four. She looked at the ground, frightened.

"No!" she whispered. She looked down to the demon that had just about reached her and the tree. "NO!" she screamed and a white fire erupted from her arm and sucker punched the bastard in that ugly ruddy face of his.

Kurama, Hiei, and Jin looked up at the blast with awestruck expressions.

"Wow, tha's a lot o demon power."

"Lydia!" Kurama exclaimed and took off for her. Two demons came away from their fight with Yusuke and tried to catch Kurama off guard. His narrowed green eyes threw daggers at them.

Kurama cracked his rose whip into one of the demon's eyes. That demon howled in anger while the other suddenly tripped over his own feet where the rose whip had wrapped around his ankles. Hiei somersaulted off their backs and took care of them. Kurama made it safely to the woman who was falling out of the tree. He caught Lydia before she hit the ground. Her face was twisted in pain.

"You're burning up," he noted, sitting her by the tree.

"Yeah," she sighed, squeezing her eyes shut and trying her hardest not to cry out and alert unwanted attention. She opened her eyes and glared in the direction of the four amused and unmoving characters. Kurama followed her eyes, his red brows furrowed.

"Is that them?"

"Yeah, that's them alright. Don't use the whip on the one in blonde hair," she warned and tried to get up.

"I don't think so," Hiei pushed her back against the tree.

"Hiei?"

He rolled his eyes, he was _not _going to spend time caring for her when there were more demons to be taken care of, a battle to win.

"If that was your Confessor and Fire Demon side, where's your so called Wizardry?" he left in a black blur. Kurama looked at the injured woman with curiosity. Her pale green eyes sought out a particular situation.

Her eyes locked on Genkai, who hadn't yet notice there was an S class demon sneaking up behind her. Lydia abruptly lifted her hand and jerked it to the left. Genkai was telekinetically lifted off the ground and out of the way of the unknown danger. In turn, Genkai sent a spirit wave over and killed five demons that were going to attack Kurama and Lydia.

"We need to fight," Lydia said bitterly.

"There's not many left, I think they can handle themselves," Kurama stated reluctantly. He looked around. They really had killed the majority. So far, their only casualty was Lydia and that was just because she was ill… so far the only casualty. The fox didn't like that the four were there watching every one, but felt they wouldn't do anything tonight.

"They'll send more," he turned his attention back to Lydia.

"When?"

"I don't know," she exhaled an exasperated sigh.

Sierra and Aftan jogged over to them.

"Lydia, are you alright?" Sierra's worried eyes raked over her body for injuries.

"Nothing to worry about now," Lydia stared at the man with long black hair. He had it tied back in a down pony tail over his dark purple and navy blue attire. Two of the four men turned to leave through a sparkling black portal that had just appeared. The one Lydia was focused on sent her a mental message.

'_Take care of yourself. I wouldn't want my creation to get hurt before the big finale.'_

He turned to, with a smile, and exited the premises. One of the men had stayed. He wore a long red coat with orange under armor. His hair was light brown and hung shoulder length attractively. He had a flask tucked into his black sash belt.

"Lydia, is he one o tha three princes?" Jin asked carefully, studying the approaching figure.

"Yes," she replied tartly.

The two Confessors stared at the man, and backed away behind the tree. Genkai stepped in front of the girls, "You'll be safe," she told them in her gravely voice. The old woman with faded pink wavy hair weighted her options. In the next minute she weighted the entire group's options.

"Yusuke, protect the Mother Confessor."

"Lydia or Danika?"

"The one who isn't here."

"If she's not here I can't do anything for her, grandma!" Yusuke smacked his forehead in frustration. He looked around for the other woman but found no sign of her.

The light haired man, an imposing threat on Lydia's list of needed dead bodies, advanced in a complacent manner.

Someone shifted where they stood by Lydia. Kurama did his best to remain relaxed. Hiei held his sword tightly in his right hand, just in case. Lydia's eyes didn't shock open like everyone else's when Danika suddenly appeared behind the man.

He spun and looked at her. Before a word was displayed between the two, Danika's hand grabbed the man's throat and he fell to his knees. There was a loud thunder clap, an eerie breeze, following a just as eerie silence. Danika looked down at the kneeling man.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Akio Kumori. It's an honor to serve you, my Lady," he kissed her hand. It fell limply to her side.

"What business do you have with the rising rebellion?" she demanded suspicious, unfazed.

"He's one of the Kumori brothers. There are three, Hayato, Hiroshi, and Akio. They're the Three Princes of Shadows."

"So…" Yusuke snapped out of shock, "Are there two different families of princes we need to worry about or did they just change their title?"

"Princes of Darkness, Princes of Shadows… they're both the same," Lydia breathed, laying her head in Sierra's lap.

"Took the words from my mouth," Akio smiled. He bowed to Danika.

"Get up," she spat out lowly.

"Yes, my love," he complied. Everyone watched the two.

Akio tried to put a hand on Danika's shoulder and she shoved him away. Yusuke stood awkwardly, raised eyebrows, not understanding what was going on. Hiei's crimson eyes followed Akio, his face hiding curiosity.

"This is what would happen, Hiei," Lydia whispered in his favor.

"I don't want your love, you filthy bastard!" Danika huffed.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. I do not want to harm you. I will not hurt your friends either. They seem like nice people, though they wish me and my brothers dead… darling, where are you going?"

"To take care of my best friend!" Danika plopped down beside Lydia.

"What can I do?" her tone changed.

"I'm not sure there's anything you can do. I'm really pretty fine, my body temperature's just acting up it seems," she grimaced.

"You're so cold," Sierra moved the dark hair out of Lydia's face.

"My body temperature usually is, to accommodate the fire demon blood."

"You mentioned your spine being on fire," Kurama murmured.

"Yes," she wiped her forehead, "it hasn't done that since I left school."

"Though you ran away just fine," Touya commented. He turned away so no one would see his small grin.

"I bet she was hard to keep up with," Kuwabara nodded his head, "she's as fast as Hiei!"

"Hn."

"I'm just sayin, man."

"No," Lydia laughed, "I beat him at a race once. Remember when you stumbled and lost me for eight seconds around the bend?"

"That never happened," Hiei denied in a surprisingly friendly tone. Lydia and Kurama just chuckled at him.

"Not to be unfavorable," Hiei smirked at his chosen word, "but shouldn't we be _moving_?"

"Lydia's ill, and we don't know what is wrong with her. It could be dangerous to move her," Kurama told him.

"Perhaps Koenma will know what to do," Genkai said doubtfully.

"Speaking of which, where'd Boton run off to?" Kuwabara wondered. "Hey! Where's Yukina?!" he worried instantly, pulling out his hair.

"Yeah, that ferry chick and Yukina haven't been seen since we got here," Yusuke's cocky sarcastic voice returned and he crossed his arms. Hiei went stiff.

Someone's cell phone beeped.

Kurama took out his communicator. He opened it and sighed, "No need to worry, Boton and Yukina are with Koenma as we speak," and he turned the screen around for everyone to see.

Hiei glanced at the screen and relaxed against the tree. Lydia patted his black panted leg, knowingly.

"He should have something we can use," Lydia pointed to Akio. He looked happy, now that he had been noticed again. Danika turned to him unwillingly.

"What's in the flask."

"I honestly can't pronounce the name of it," he laughed.

"Do you carry healing potions?"

"I typically do, yes," he answered her, his yellow eyes looking at her dark plant green eyes.

"He's the medicine man out of the bunch," Lydia agreed, with previous knowledge.

"Give it to her," Danika told him. He scrunched up his face.

"I said I wouldn't hurt any of your friends."

"It may be poisonous," Kurama reasoned, ready to take it and find out.

"I'll test it," Danika told him. Under many views of testing, it seemed alright.

"Looks can be deceiving," Akio warned, biting his lip nervously and seemingly uncomfortable with what they were doing.

"You're right, these are demon concoctions," Danika said, still sitting Lydia up to drink it. "Let's hope this stops the burning and weird fevers," she smiled at her.

Akio scratched his head for a long time pacing before he finally turned to them. "My Lady, I don't think you should do that."

"Oh?" Lydia drank what Danika held to her lips. The pain did go away.

"Thanks," Lydia smiled.

"Looks like yer good as new!" Jin patted her on the back. "Quick thinkin girly," he winked at Danika.

"She won't be," Akio whispered to him self and turned away.

"What?" Hiei picked up.

"Yes, what do you mean?" Kurama began second guessing their cure for Lydia's body.

"I wanted to tell you, but they had told me not to. It was part of the plan," he started, clearly upset. Danika got up and looked at him quizzically.

"What was the plan?" she challenged in mock friendliness. Touya offered Lydia his hand to pull her up.

"They gave me one of our virus liquids. They knew some one would get hurt and I was to give it to who ever was unlucky enough to be the casualty. They also knew that one of you would confess me," he backed away from Danika's fury while Kurama started to walk toward him, "I was afraid but told them I would do it. It was for the greater of our desires. Of course now, I don't want to help them anymore, because I love you!" he told Danika while Kurama pulled on one of his arms, "I told you _I _wouldn't hurt you or your friends, but you did it anyway. I cared for you too much to stay completely silent like I was told to by my brothers and Takashi. I did it for you and I didn't feel this way before, and I know it's the curse that makes it so, but there's no way around it… I love you!"

Kurama yanked the other man close to him. Akio looked to Kurama with new fright.

"Does he really love her?" Boton didn't completely understand the process. She spoke aloud from Spirit World, looking into the screen with Yukina and Koenma from where Kuwabara held it facing the action. Koenma groaned. Yukina wrung her hands in worry.

"No," Aftan deadpanned, "Like he said, it's the curse talking."

"There's no cure for the Confessor's touch," Sierra spoke softly but audibly, rocking back and forth on her feet.

"I thought I saw a scheme," Lydia admitted. "The only drink you carry with you is Dream Fighter, a bright orange concoction that smells like sugar cookies and heals most anything. It's vital to you and your brothers because every one wants to kill you. This potion was light purple, and should have been drunk."

"Your brothers just sacrificed you to the Confessors?" Kurama interrogated, still holding Akio close and tight. Akio looked down.

"Tell the truth," Danika requested.

"Finally," Aftan snorted, "it's about time you brought out our _real_ job and the meaning for Confession."

Danika spared the blonde a harsh look.

"I was supposed to waste time until the second wave came in."

"Second wave of what, demons?" Yusuke demanded to know. It seems they had to do a lot of demanding now a days.

Akio nodded. Kurama looked to Danika.

"There's nothing I can really think of more to ask him."

No one else said anything. Kurama was too angered to think of anything else either. With one swift jerk he broke Akio's collar bone.

"That's punishment," he told the crying man vehemently, "Stay in the trees, hidden, until the second wave of battle comes and _you will help us_." Akio nodded weakly.

Kurama walked away from the crawling man. No one said a word to him.

"Now then, I'm sending Yukina back to you as a healer. I'm sorry to be doing this," Koenma said sincerely around his pacifier in his toddler form, "I hope I don't regret it. Boton is staying with me."

"Hey, can some one check on my sis?"

"Of course, I'll get right on that. I'll check on Keiko to!" Boton volunteered.

Yusuke sighed, "Thanks."

"Out of my curiosity, which technique does the Confessed man possess?" Koenma inquired. The little round face looked like it didn't really want to know.

"He uses the shadows to create images of loved ones. He uses it as a guilt weapon in the least. If you so much as touch these shadows, you die instantly. No exceptions," Lydia explained.

"And love turned him into that?" Boton asked quietly.

The screen went dark and they began discussing where to go.

"We shouldn't leave the area if more are coming."

"I know, but we didn't have dinner."

"You're really thinking about food?"

"Come on you have to be hungry to."

"Well yeah, you got me. That's not the point, the point is-"

"None of you are getting the point," that was Hiei, frustrated and keeping an even attitude.

Danika and Kurama worried over Lydia.

"There's no other choice, we have to wait it out," Danika spoke sadly. She really didn't like the outcome of all this.

"I have no idea what is going to happen. We need to keep a close on you. Lydia, you'll tell us if something is wrong."

"Yes, Kurama," she sighed. There always seemed to be _something_ wrong.

A glow appeared behind them. It was a horizontal yellow light, not a portal, but a rip in the world. The light grew brighter and caught every one's attention.

"I think they're coming," Touya created his ice sword in advance.

Those sitting down stood tall. Sierra and Aftan walked to the middle of the group that had quickly dispersed widely. They had their own cross bow with arrows. Where they got them from was a wonder, no one saw them bring them.

"They're going to flood in at once, but watch for the hunters they send to take to the woods. They'll spring on us when we least expect it!" Lydia rushed and gasped on the last couple of words.

Danika's hand pressed into Lydia's back to keep her steady.

"How do you know this?" one asked.

"Because I can feel them!" she drew out in a moan, face pained. She arched her back and fell down over Danika's hand.

"Lydia!"

And they poured through the rip.

* * *

**The next chapter is very eventful and hopefully won't be too long... but it is a fight chapter. If you have any good advice for writing fight scenes, I'd appreciate it!!**


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